THE top two seeds took the court to complete the Round of 32 at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna, with the stacked side of the draw seeing both Novak Djokovic and Dominic Thiem proceed amongst a flurry of talented names.

Djokovic was tasked with disposing of compatriot Filip Krajinovic, and while he came away with victory his Serbian counterpart did not make it easy early on, going game for game with the world number one and seeing Djokovic require almost two hours to come away with the 7-6 6-3 victory. Djokovic was far more consistent in this outing, registering eight aces for a 76 per cent winning rate off his first serve and winning almost 50 per cent of points of the return. Thiem’s outing went much the same against lucky loser Vitaliy Sachko, coming away with the 6-4 7-5 victory in one hour and 47 minutes with the Ukrainian biting back in the second set to no avail. While Sachko served better at 71 per cent, Thiem was more efficient with a 68 per cent winning rate off the first serve compared the Sachko’s 56 per cent, with the second seed also far better on the return, capitalising off the Ukrainian’s much slower second serve averaging 135km/h.

Cristian Garin marginally upset Stan Wawrinka, with the 22nd ranked Chilean outlasting the 19th ranked Swiss veteran in the two hour and 13 minute battle, 6-4 6-7 6-3. While Wawrinka served at just 54 per cent, he won off a whopping 84 per cent of his first serve forcing Garin to make up the difference, saving 100 per cent of break points and converting two of five attempts. It was Garin’s consistency that got him over the line, with his marginally lower efficiency off his first serve – a 74 per cent winning rate – made up by his 64 per cent effectiveness on the second serve compared to the 32 per cent difference between Wawrinka’s first and second serves. It was a similar story between Grigor Dimitrov and Karen Khachanov, with the duo only separated by a few ranks and the former coming away with a 7-6 6-3 victory credit to his ability to capitalise off both the service and return games.

Italian lucky loser Lorenzo Sonego defeated Serbian Dusan Lajovic credit to a huge nine aces and 77 per cent winning rate off his serve, coming away with the 6-4 6-3 victory. Meanwhile, Brit Daniel Evans was a set up when Slovenian qualifier Aljaz Bedene retired from the match, proceeding through to the Round of 16 with the 6-3 4-5 result, while Hubert Hurkacz defeated Hungarian qualifier Attila Balazs 6-3 7-5 with an excellent 88 per cent winning rate on the first serve propelling him over the line in the tight second set.