Swiss Open 2022: Matteo Berrettini vs. Dominic Thiem Tennis Pick and Prediction

TennisSection previews the 2022 Swiss Open as Matteo Berrettini takes on Dominic Thiem in the semifinal on Saturday, July 23rd, 2022.

Two of the ATP’s heavyweights will meet in the semifinals of the Swiss Open as the World No. 15 Matteo Berrettini plays a resurgent Dominic Thiem in a mouthwatering matchup in Gstaad. Who will reach Sunday’s final?

As Matteo Berrettini put it at the end of his quarterfinal win over Pedro Martinez, tennis can sometimes be a crazy sport. Crazy indeed. The Italian power-hitting machine was on the verge of his first defeat since returning from injury layoff. But despite trailing the Spanish clay-court specialist 1-5 in the second-set tiebreak (having lost the first set), he produced a remarkable comeback from the dead. Berrettini won six successive points out of the blue to turn the match on its head. From that moment on, he won the tiebreak and went on to dominate the third set and extended his winning streak.

Dominic Thiem, for his part, continues to build some much-needed momentum after a rough start to the season. Thiem, as you may know, only returned to action at the end of March after healing from his debilitating wrist injury he picked up last June. But he went on a seven-match losing streak before breaking his duck at the Salzburg Challenger. His first ATP tour win had to wait for a year before he got the job done in Bastad, where he reached the quarterfinals. This week at the Swiss Open, he has gone one better – reaching his first tour-level semifinal of the season by beating Juan Pablo Varillas in straight sets.

Matteo Berrettini leads Dominic Thiem 3-2 at tour-level. Their solitary meeting on clay was won by Thiem at the 2018 French Open – the same year Berrettini won the Swiss Open in his only previous appearance before this week. There can be doubt that Thiem is clearly getting to the level he once was in, but his game is still a work-in-progress. I think this will be the ultimate test for him and I am slightly unconvinced he will get so much joy breaking the Berrettini serve.