Thiem gets up to his old hot shot tricks in Rio

The second seed in Rio de Janeiro certainly did not settle for a second rate hot shot on Friday.

Dominic Thiem was in complete command of his quarterfinal match against Diego Schwarztman when he (probably unnecessarily) pulled a tweener out of his bag of tricks.

Why not when you’re up a set and a double break, right?

The world No. 8-ranked Thiem eventually won the match 6-2, 6-3 in 75 minutes. His straightforward scoreline will not be remembered, but that beautiful tweener passing shot will be. Just look at the Austrian’s reaction.

Thiem and Schwartzman also played in last year’s Rio Open, a tight 7-5, 7-5 decision that went in Thiem’s favor. The 23-year-old will look to better last year’s semifinal performance in Brazil when he takes on world No. 25 Albert Ramos-Vinolas on Saturday.

In their only previous meeting (last year in Chengdu), the Spaniard cruised by his higher-ranked opponent.

Ramos-Vinolas may not have resorted to a tweener in his quarterfinal, but he beat qualifier Nicolas Kicker in a nearly identical time of 74 minutes.