Thiem, Wawrinka feature in Thursday’s action at Astana Open

Ravi Ubha

When the draw was made for the Astana Open on Monday, one potential second-round pairing especially stood out — Dominic Thiem against Stan Wawrinka.

They are the two Grand Slam winners in the 28-player main draw of the indoor hard-court 250 in Kazakhstan.

But before they meet in what would be a first head-to-head since Indian Wells in 2017, both need to overcome their opening challenges on Thursday.

And Thiem’s opponent, 67th-ranked Juan Pablo Varillas, has beaten the Austrian already this season.

It came in Buenos Aires in February in a landmark tournament for the Peruvian. He entered the clay-court event ranked 101st but after reaching the semifinals — his first at tour level — left it at No. 81.

Although he first cracked the top 100 last season — for two weeks in August — Varillas has remained inside the top 100 ever since his memorable week in Argentina.

He has contested all four main draws at Grand Slams this year for the first time in his career and even proved to be a marathon man at the French Open, winning three straight five-setters to earn a date with Novak Djokovic.

Djokovic ended his stay en route to going all the way at Roland Garros.

Thiem, though, won the pair’s initial duel also on clay, in Gstaad, last year. He possesses much more experience than Varillas playing indoors.

Indeed, Varillas has never contested a tour-level match indoors.

Thiem returned to the top 100 in January after dropping to as low as 352nd in June 2022, hindered by a wrist injury.

Another layoff resulted more recently.

Thiem retired at the US Open against eventual semifinalist Ben Shelton in the second round due to stomach inflammation and hasn’t played since.

He makes his Astana debut while Wawrinka returns after losing in the first round last campaign to 2020 finalist Adrian Mannarino.

Back then, however, Wawrinka was ranked 191st — in the aftermath of his own injury issues.

This year, ‘Stan the Man’ just missed out on a seeding with a ranking of 47th.

One of the 38-year-old’s goals is to win another title and the Swiss nearly did so in Umag — the site of his first ATP title in 2006 — losing in three sets in July’s final against Alexei Popyrin. 

Wawrinka plays American Marcos Giron, whose ranking of 82nd marks his lowest since May 2021.

Giron ended a four-match losing streak last week in Chengdu by beating this week’s third seed in Astana, Alexander Bublik.

Mannarino — seeded sixth — starts on center court at noon local time against fellow Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech.

Besides making the final three years ago, Mannarino reached the quarterfinals last year in his lone other visit and a rare doubles final with pal Fabrice Martin.

Rinderknech, meanwhile, was forced to retire from doubles in Chengdu with a left wrist issue.

Another Frenchman features second on center court, Gregoire Barrere, against Thiem’s compatriot, Jurij Rodionov.

Rodionov went through qualifying without dropping a set and has enjoyed success in Kazakhstan previously, landing in the final of the Astana Challenger in 2021 and winning the Almaty Challenger in 2018.