Thiem breezes back to French Open semi-finals

Paris, June 6: Dominic Thiem outclassed Karen Khachanov 6-2 6-4 6-2 on Thursday to reach the French Open semi-finals for a fourth consecutive year.

Thiem, last year's beaten finalist, dominated from start to finish on Court Suzanne-Lenglen and the result never appeared to be in doubt.

A meeting with Novak Djokovic or Alexander Zverev is next, with the potential of a rematch with Rafael Nadal, last year's champion, in Sunday's final edging nearer by the day.

Having beaten Nadal on the red dirt in four straight seasons, too, Thiem looks as ready as he is ever likely to be to take on the clay king at Roland Garros.

Thiem attacked his opponent from the off and dragged seven minutes out of Khachanov's battling first hold, before breaking as the Russian thrashed wide in his next service game.

And Khachanov then collapsed from 40-0 up to gift Thiem a second break, allowing the Austrian to see out the set in style on serve.

Khachanov stuck with his in-form rival at the start of the second, but Thiem continued to thrill the crowd with his effortless brilliance and eventually led at 5-4 after seizing control of a 20-shot rally.

Again comfortably serving out the set, Thiem found life easy once more in the third as he was handed the decisive advantage by Khachanov's sloppy double fault.

The fourth seed cruised to the finish without facing a single break point as he proved a sizeable step too far for Khachanov, who had been enjoying his best run at a grand slam.

STATISTICAL BREAKDOWN Dominic Thiem [4] bt Karen Khachanov [10] 6-2 6-4 6-2

WINNERS/UNFORCED ERRORS Thiem - 29/12 Khachanov - 17/37

ACES/DOUBLE FAULTS Thiem - 3/3 Khachanov - 5/4

BREAK POINTS WON Thiem - 5/8 Khachanov - 0/0

FIRST SERVE PERCENTAGE Thiem - 63 Khachanov - 67

PERCENTAGE OF POINTS WON ON FIRST/SECOND SERVE Thiem - 80/62 Khachanov - 61/44

TOTAL POINTS Thiem - 91 Khachanov - 66