RICKY DIMON PEEKS @ MATCH-UP WITH GULBIS & THIEM SET UP U.S. OPEN SHOWDOWN BETWEEN BEST FRIENDS

Written by: Staff on 27th August 2014

French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros

RICKY DIMON PEEKS @ MATCH-UP WITH GULBIS & THIEM SET UP U.S. OPEN SHOWDOWN BETWEEN BEST FRIENDS

epa04242115 Ernests Gulbis of Latvia returns to Novak Djokovic of Serbia in their men's semi final match during the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France, 06 June 2014. EPA/YOAN VALAT |

The Gunter Bresnik Bowl will take place on Friday in New York.

Ernests Gulbis and Dominic Thiem, who share coach Gunter Bresnik and are constant practice partners at almost every tournament on their schedules, will go head-to-head in the second round of the U.S. Open. They set up what will be the first installment at the main-draw level of this friendly rivalry by winning entirely routine openers on Wednesday.

Thiem got Bresnik’s successful day started on the right foot by destroying Lukas Lacko 6-3, 6-3, 6-2. The 20-year-old did not drop serve a single time over the course of just one hour and 26 minutes.

Gulbis followed suit on the Grandstand, the same court on which he enjoyed his true breakout on tour back in 2007–when he crushed then-world No. 8 Tommy Robredo in easy straight sets to reach the fourth round. The Latvian rolled over Kenny De Schepper this time around, cruising 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 in one hour and 34 minutes.

“I think he’s going to be happy somebody’s in third round,” Gulbis answered when asked whom Bresnik would root for on Friday. “We have a good relation. He gave a lot to me by helping me to practice. Because if I see young guy who is so motivated and so eager to practice, let’s say I have to be not worse than him, so I push myself even more through that. When he saw me pushing more, then he was pushing more. It’s a win-win situation.”

Someone will have to lose, of course, just as one did when they squared off in a qualifying match two summers ago in Winston-Salem. Gulbis dominated 6-4, 6-3 while out-acing Thiem 11-0.

Dominic Thiem of Austria hits a return to Lukas Lacko of Slovakia during the third day of the 2014 US Open Tennis Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 27 August 2014. The US Open runs through 08 September, a 15-day schedule. EPA/JUSTIN LANE

“I think it’s a little bit tougher on Dominic,” Gulbis said of the matchup. “He really doesn’t want to play [against] me, because we played one match in [Winston-Salem] in qualifying. I played a terrible match, but he couldn’t [beat] me just because it was against me. It was a really bad quality match, so hopefully it’s going to be better quality.”

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand.

Topics: Dominic Thiem, Ernests Gulbis, Ricky Dimon, Tennis, Tennis News, US Open

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10sBalls_com says:

August 27, 2014 at 8:22 pm

@RD_Tennistalk PEEKS @ MATCH-UP WITH @egulbisfans & @ThiemDomi SET UP @usopen SHOWDOWN BETWEEN BEST FRIENDS- http://t.co/dNCOUobYbp #USOpen
RD_Tennistalk says:

August 27, 2014 at 8:26 pm

RT @10sBalls_com: @RD_Tennistalk PEEKS @ MATCH-UP WITH @egulbisfans & @ThiemDomi SET UP @usopen SHOWDOWN BETWEEN BEST FRIENDS- http://t.co/…