Dominic Thiem suffers shock early exit at French Open as crisis of confidence continues

Dominic Thiem saw his awful year continue as he suffered a first round defeat at the French Open to Pablo Andujar.

Thiem looked like he was making something of a routine start in Paris when he went two sets up on the veteran Spaniard.

However, he then suffered what can only really be described as a total collapse of confidence and quality.

Andujar levelled the match and forced a decider before completing a memorable 4-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 win.

“It’s very special for me, to achieve this at 35 years old, I don’t know how much longer I’m going to play,” Andujar said afterwards. “This win is a real gift.”

It was a second big win in two weeks for Andujar after he also beat Roger Federer at Geneva.

Thiem lost in the fourth round at the Australian Open in February before a pair of early exits in Doha and Dubai, where he was the top seed.

He then pulled out of the Miami and Monte-Carlo Masters to focus on regaining his form in training, although a knee injury also hampered his progress.

That strategy looked like it had been a good one when he returned at Madrid and reached the semi-finals, although a further failure in Rome before Roland Garros told a different story.