- Thiem, No 4 seed, leads two sets to love before stumbling
- Dan Evans and Grigor Dimitrov also out in first round
For much of Sunday afternoon Dominic Thiem appeared to be right on track. He had established a two sets to love lead against the world No 68, he generated a break point in the third set and he seemed to be on his way to a solid win. But then, out of the blue at 3-4 in the third set, he inexplicably threw in four unforced errors in a row and lost his service game to love.
Thiem would spend the rest of the day trying to regain his momentum and he was ultimately unsuccessful. The fourth seed and two-times Roland Garros finalist squandered his two sets lead in its entirety as Pablo Andújar, a recent victor over Roger Federer, triumphed 4-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.
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Related: French Open 2021: Thiem and Evans out, Osaka through – as it happened