By Chris Oddo | Wednesday September 21, 2016

 

Dominic Thiem returned to action by defeating Germany's Peter Gojowczyk in his Moselle Open debut.

Photo Source: AP

Dominic Thiem made a successful Moselle Open debut by defeating Germany’s Peter Gojowczyk in straight sets, 7-5, 7-6(2), to set up a quarterfinal clash with Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller.

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Theim improved to 53-17 on the season and improved his chances of grabbing one of the five remaining spots for this year’s World Tour Finals in London, to be held Nov 12-20.

He is currently in 7th in the Race to London standings.

The Austrian, a four-time title winner this season, poured in 12 aces and did not face a break point. But he was pushed by the German throughout the 88-minute battle.

Theim broke through in the final game of the opening set when Gojowczyk finally played a loose game, but the pair were neck-and-neck in the second set as Gojowczyk saved all three break points he faced before yielding to Theim in a tiebreaker.

Thiem avenged a straight-sets loss to Gojowczyk in Doha in 2014, finishing with 21 winners against 22 unforced errors. Thiem will face Muller for the second time this season. The 23-year-old retired in the second set while down a set against Muller in the Sydney round of 16 this season.

The 33-year-old world No. 37 defeated Nikoloz Basilashvili on Wednesday, 6-4, 6-2, for his 29th win of the season.

French wild card Julien Benneteau knocked off Dustin Brown, 6-3, 6-4 earlier on Wednesday, while No. 8-seeded Nicolas Mahut defeated wild card Quentin Halys by the same score.

Ilya Marchenko saved two match points to defeat Andreas Seppi, 6-7(1), 6-3, 7-6(4), while Malek Jaziri defeated Ivan Dodig, 6-4, 7-6(3).

Tommy Robredo, making his return from elbow surgery, fell to Jan-Lennard Struff, 7-6(5), 7-5.