NEW YORK (Reuters) – Second seed Dominic Thiem celebrated his 27th birthday with a commanding 6-3 6-3 6-2 victory over India’s Sumit Nagal on Thursday to move into the third round of the U.S. Open.
Austrian Thiem, seeking his maiden Grand Slam title, won an overwhelming 74% of his first serve points and fired seven aces past the inexperienced Nagal, breaking him seven times in the two-hour contest.
Nagal became on Tuesday the first Indian in seven years to win a singles match at Flushing Meadows but the 23-year-old showed only flashes of brilliance in a one-sided clash at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Up next for Thiem, who was runner-up at the Australian Open this year, is 2014 champion Marin Cilic of Croatia who beat Slovakia’s Norbert Gombos 6-3 1-6 7-6(2) 7-5.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)
