By John Stonestreet
LONDON (Reuters) - Unseeded Czech Jiri Vesely won a battle of the tiebreaks to sink Austrian eighth seed Dominic Thiem in three tough sets in the second round at Wimbledon on Thursday.
Bets placed on a clash between two exciting players from the emerging tennis generation would have been weighted towards the Austrian.
His top-10 ranking consolidated at the French Open with a run to the semi-finals, Thiem had won 18 of the 28 tiebreaks he has played this year while the 64th-ranked Czech had lost 12 of his 16.
Thiem had also come out on top in the two previous main tour matches between the 22-year-olds and had won seven of eight outings on grass this year, including an inaugural title on the surface in this month's Wimbledon warm-up tournament in Stuttgart.
But in a pulsating 2-3/4-hour encounter during which both players successfully varied their game, punctuating long baseline rallies with bouts of serve-and-volley and the occasional dropshot, the pressure of holding a misfiring serve eventually told on Thiem.
He conceded all three of the decisive points in Vesely's 7-6(4) 7-6(5) 7-6(3) win on forehand errors -- having earlier passed up three break points in the 11th game of the first set.
The Czech will play Portuguese 31st seed Joao Sousa in the third round.