After the claiming the titles in Buenos Aires and Acapulco, VAVEL USA have named Dominic Thiem, 22, February's ATP Player of the month.
Spanish and Argentine dominance comes to an end
Since 2002, Argentina and Spain have dominated the Argentina Open, but the 22-year-old conquered to end that reign and win the title.
In his first two matches he won in three sets against Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta and Gastao Elias. In the quarterfinals, he had no problems against Dusan Lajovic as he beat the Serb in straights to set a showdown with the King of Clay, Rafael Nadal. Rafa started the match by breaking, but Thiem broke straight back and then went on to clinch the opening set 6-4. Rafa then shown some fighting spirit during the second set to level the match, but ultimately he would lose out in the third set on a tie-break to Thiem, who dethroned him of his title.
Thiem, currently the youngest player inside the world's top 20, came through to defeat Nicolas Almagro 7-6(2), 3-6, 7-6(4) to win the Argentina Open. Thiem was a break down in the final set, but regrouped to win his fourth ATP title in less than two and a half hours. With that win, he had announced himself as the best young player on tour.
Semifinal and Fifth overall title
Dominic Thiem arrived in Rio in good form, having just won the Buenos Aires title. He breezed through his opening three matches winning without dropping a set. He then faced Guido Pella, an Argentine who was having a great tournament. Pella defeated Thiem in straight sets to contest his first ATP final.
The Austrian capped off a sublime February to win his fifth overall ATP title and his first at the ATP 500 level. He defeated Bernard Tomic 7-6(6), 4-6 6-3 in Acapulco, Mexico. En route to the final he beat, Damir Dzumhur, Dmitry Tursunov, Grigor Dimitrov and Sam Querrey, only dropping one set. The final turned out to be a thrilling one when Tomic served for the opening set at 5-3, but was broken by Thiem, who then took the set to a tiebreak and won. The second seemed to be straight forward, despite Tomic saving a couple of break points, he took the set 4-6, but the third set would see Thiem win 6 out of 8 games to secure the title, despite having to recover from an early break at the very start of the set.
This meant his record for February was 13-1, with his only loss coming to Guido Pella in the semifinals of Rio.
