Day of upsets in Rio as Dominic Thiem and Fabio Fognini tumble out

ATP Tour
Dominic Thiem in action

The seeds continued to crash out of the Rio Open with the top three Dominic Thiem, Fabio Fognini and Marco Cecchinato among the first-round casualties.

Top seed and world No 8 Thiem, who won the Rio title in 2017, suffered a 6-3, 6-3 loss against Laslo Djere, who claimed his maiden win over a top 10 player.

The Austrian started well enough as he broke in the opening game of the match, but Djere hit back straight away and then claimed a second break in game eight.

Thiem was always behind in the second set as the Serb broke three times to set up the biggest win of his career.

“It was a great day. The biggest win in my career so I’m really happy right now… I hit the ball really well,” Djere said.

“He played a bit worse than normally I think, to be honest. But I had a great day. I felt the ball really well, hitting well from the baseline and then attacking well when it was time for that.

“This is my favourite surface. So I know that I can play great tennis on clay.”

Second seed Fognini was also sent packing as he was beaten by Felix Auger-Aliassime with the Canadian teenager winning 6-2, 6-3.

Auger-Aliassime broke twice in the first set and once in the second to earn a second-round clash against Chile’s Christian Garin, who beat Maximilian Marterer from Germany 7-5, 6-3.

Just days after winning the Argentina Open, Cecchinato was brought back down to earth as he suffered a 7-5, 7-6 (7-1) defeat against Slovenian Aljaz Bedene.

Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie continued the upsets as he beat sixth seed Dusan Lajovic 6-2, 6-1 to earn a second-round clash against Jaume Munar, who was a 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 winner over Leonardo Mayer.

Eighth seed Nicolas Jarry, meanwhile, lost against Roberto Carballes with the Spaniard winning 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (8-6).

Joao Sousa was the only seed to progress as the fifth-seeded Portuguese beat Guido Pella from Argentina 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

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