Dominic Thiem is the Iron Man of the 2018 season.

Nobody has played more matches (42) or won more total games (597) than the 24-year-old Austrian. He thrives on a robust schedule and has delivered a 35-9 record and two ATP World Tour titles, in Buenos Aires and Lyon.

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of Thiem’s year reveals that he crafts his advantage more on the serving side of the equation than returning. Thiem is No. 1 on Tour this season in Service Games Won and has opened a considerable gap in this specific statistic over the rest of the Tour.

2018 Top 5: Service Games Won
1. Dominic Thiem 456
2. Alexander Zverev 416
3. Juan Martin del Potro 386
4. Kevin Anderson 374
5. Marin Cilic 358

Thiem has made 60 per cent of his first serves this season, winning 76 per cent of them. He has won 52 per cent of his second-serve points.

Not surprisingly, Thiem has also played the most service games in 2018. What will make you look twice is that he has played 103 more service games than fifth-placed Kevin Anderson.

2018 Top 5: Service Games Played
1. Dominic Thiem 533
2. Alexander Zverev 507
3. Fabio Fognini 442
4. Juan Martin del Potro 441
5. Kevin Anderson 430

Thiem has been a model of consistency this season, only twice failing to reach the quarter-finals out of 12 tournaments, while reaching four finals. Thiem has lost two matches in a row only once this season, which occurred when he lost in the final of the Mutua Madrid Open, an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event, and then lost his first match at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome the following week to Fabio Fognini.

When we look to the returning side of the game, Thiem comes in a very close third with Return Games Won.

2018 Top 5: Return Games Won
1. Alexander Zverev 145
2. Rafael Nadal 144
3. Dominic Thiem 141
4. Diego Schwartzman 130
5. Fabio Fognini 126

When you look at the Austrian’s complete body of work, Thiem has outworked all opponents so far in 2018 to win the most combined serve and return games.

2018 Top 5: Total Games Won
1. Dominic Thiem 597
2. Alexander Zverev 561
3. Juan Martin del Potro 493
4. Fabio Fognini 469
5. Kevin Anderson 453

Thiem’s current ATP Ranking is No. 7, and he boasts a career-high ranking of No. 4, which he achieved in November 2017. By November 2018, he should be right back around his career best or possibly higher as he only has 22 per cent of his points to defend for the rest of 2018, including fourth-round runs at Wimbledon and the US Open.

Look for the Austrian workhorse to crack the Top 5 again very soon.

In their first match as a team since 2015, Robert Lindstedt and Marcin Matkowski fell in a third-set tie-break in the first round at Roland Garros against Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut. But they have not let the disappointment resonate, upsetting No. 3 seeds Max Mirnyi and Philipp Oswald 6-3, 6-4 at the MercedesCup in Stuttgart on Thursday to advance to their first semi-final as a pair since the Sydney International three years ago. 

Lindstedt/Matkowski will attempt to reach their first ATP World Tour final together when they face Marton Fucsovics/Mischa Zverev or Jonathan Eysseric/Lucas Pouille. Eysseric and Pouille surprised No. 2 seeds Ben McLachlan and Jan-Lennard Struff 6-7(5), 6-3, 10-7 in a late opening-round match on Thursday. 

The seeded casualties continued, as wild cards Philipp Petzschner and Tim Puetz battled past No. 4 seeds Marcelo Demoliner and Feliciano Lopez 6-4, 6-7(5), 10-6. The Germans will look to continue their run in the semi-finals against top seeds Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Jean-Julien Rojer. The Pakistani-Dutch team survived a battle, ousting Nick Kyrgios and Jackson Withrow 7-6(3), 6-4.

Fourth Seeds Advance In ‘s-Hertogenbosch
No. 4 seeds Divij Sharan and Artem Sitak beat Romain Arneodo and Gilles Muller 7-6(2), 6-3 to reach the semi-finals at the Libema Open in the only doubles match of the day in The Netherlands.

Did You Know?
Robert Lindstedt and Marcin Matkowski have yet to reach a final as a team, but they have combined to win 39 tour-level titles.

Milos Raonic, 2016 Wimbledon finalist, cruised past Hungarian Marton Fucsovics 6-2, 6-4 in 51 minutes at the MercedesCup in Stuttgart on Thursday to set an exciting quarter-final clash against 2010 Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych.

“It’s never easy on grass. Obviously the one important thing for me was I held my serve pretty routinely throughout the match. That puts a lot of pressure on my opponent so when I do get a few chances, they feel a lot more difficult for him because it could be the end of that set,” Raonic said. “I’m doing things well. I’m happy with the way I’m playing, and I hope I can continue this way.” 

Raonic, who made at least the quarter-finals at two of his four ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events this season (Indian Wells, Miami), is pursuing his first tour-level grass-court title. He hit 19 aces and lost just seven points on serve to move into the final eight. Raonic has not faced a break point in his first two matches. The Canadian leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Berdych 5-3.

Berdych snapped a five-match losing streak, defeating Frenchman Benoit Paire 7-6(3), 6-4 to set the battle against Raonic.

The No. 3 seed, who has reached back-to-back Wimbledon semi-finals, had not lost five consecutive matches since the end of 2004 through the beginning of 2005, when he dropped six in a row. At the time, the Czech was just 19 years old. But he bounced back on the Stuttgart grass, dropping just six first-serve points and saving the only break point he faced to move past the World No. 47. 

“It was a tough one. He’s a very talented player. You really don’t know until the last moment what’s going to come up. He’s very talented, all the shots he can make. For the first time after such a long time, to play him, it’s not easy. But I’m glad that I had a good test and I think I played very well throughout the whole match,” Berdych said.

Berdych now leads Paire 3-0 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series after defeating the Frenchman in their first meeting since Roland Garros in 2015. The Czech showed good form early in the season, reaching at least the quarter-finals at three of his first four tournaments. Berdych seeks his first ATP World Tour title since the Shenzhen Open in 2016.

Did You Know?
No. 7 seed Milos Raonic has won 92.2 per cent of first-serve points (59/64) through two matches in Stuttgart.