Dominic Thiem through to European Open quarter-finals in Antwerp after beating Francisco Cerundolo

Dominic Thiem is into the quarter-finals of the European Open in Antwerp after a second win in seven days over Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo.

After getting the better of his opponent in straight sets last time out in Gijon, Thiem was forced to work harder to get the desired result on this occasion.

The Austrian former world No.3 made a blistering start to take the first set 6-1, but Cerundolo fought back to level things up with the same score in the second.

This gave the 24-year-old confidence to break Thiem in the decider, giving him a 4-3 advantage and seemingly set to cause an upset.

However, Thiem struck back to win four of the next five games and book his place in the last eight.

After fighting his way to victory, Thiem said:

“That’s why I work hard every day, to be able after two hours with a very close score, to play good shots, to play good tennis, because that is when it matters most. At 6-5 in the third, you have to come up with good tennis to be able to bring the match over the finish line, and luckily today it was my turn.”

Thiem goes up against top seed Hubert Hurkacz next, and knows he will have to up his game from the last time they met.

“For two years he has been [one of] the world’s best, especially indoors. Unbelievable serve, we just played three or four weeks ago in Metz, where he had a pretty easy win against me, and I hope I can make it more difficult for him tomorrow and be able to make another step ahead,” he said.

With Thiem still continuing to fight back to his best after the wrist injury which took him out of action for 10 months, his physical coach Jez Green has a warning for other players on the tour.

Green told Tennis World: “I think we’ll start seeing the real, full-on, vintage Dominic Thiem soon”.

Felix Auger-Aliassime – who is second seed in Belgium – has also booked his place in the next round.

The Canadian served 11 aces on his way to a straightforward victory over Frenchman Manuel Guinard.

Third seed Diego Schwartzman is out though, after being beaten in straight sets by David Goffin.

Sebastian Korda continued his good form to make it through the second round.

On the back of reaching his third ATP Tour final in Gijon last week, Korda progressed with a 7-5, 7-6(9) win against Karen Khachanov.

Korda saved four set points in the second set tie-break to set up a quarter-final clash with Yoshihito Nishioka.