Dominic Thiem outlasts Alexander Zverev, comes back from two sets down to win US Open and first Grand Slam title
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NEW YORK — A country famous for its alps and its skiers has a new champion. His name is Dominic Thiem and he reached the summit of his sport Sunday in a place that is 20 feet above sea level, awakening from a godawful start to capture his first Grand Slam title on his fourth try and become the first Austrian to win the U.S. Open.
Showing world-class resilience in a 2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (6) victory over his longtime friend Alexander Zverev of Germany, the third-ranked Thiem made history, winning the first Open final to be decided by a fifth-set tiebreaker. He joins Thomas Muster, who won the French Open in 1995, as the only Austrian to win a major tennis championship.
Thiem, of course, is also the first man from any nation to take a major title before no fans, during a pandemic, and in a bubble.
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A total of 14,273 COVID-19 tests were administered in that bubble, and just as it was getting deconstructed Sunday night, Thiem soldiered through the toughest test of all, a match that took 321 points and four hours and one minute to decide. His exhilaration and relief were palpable as he collapsed to the court, but it was a little bittersweet, considering that his opponent was a good friend.
“It’s amazing how this journey brought us to share this moment with you,” Thiem said during the trophy ceremony. “I think we both deserved it. … You’re going to make it 100 percent. You’re going to make your parents proud.”
Zverev, on his chair, was fighting tears. When it was time to talk, he congratulated Thiem and said, “I wish you would have missed a little bit more so I could have (held) that trophy up, but here I am giving the runner’s-up speech.” He continued. Now he was really crying.
“There’s some special people missing in the crowd today,” Zverev said. “I want to thank my parents. They’re always with me in every single tournament I go to and unfortunately my dad and my mother tested positive before the tournament and they couldn’t have gone with me.”
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His parents saw their 23-year-old son — the youngest Open finalist since Novak Djokovic 10 years ago — come as close as you can to winning without doing so. With his huge game, Zverev’s trophy-hoisting should be ahead of him.
As for Thiem, he followed the playbook of Naomi Osaka in the women’s final the day before; Osaka, too, had a disastrous start and then turned it around.
When top-ranked Djokovic, a 17-time Slam champion, was defaulted in the fourth round for accidentally hitting a linesperson in the throat with a swatted ball, the Open was assured of having a first-time winner. For a long while Sunday night, it seemed almost a lock it would be Zverev, and Thiem, who had dropped only one set in his first six rounds, would fall to 0-4 in his championship major finals.
Thiem, 27, has now won eight of his 10 matches against the No. 7 Zverev, who battled him over four taut sets last January in Australia. Hoping to become the first German man to win the Open since Boris Becker in 1989, Zverev had the misfortune to see Thiem do to him what he had done to Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta in the semifinals, Carreno Busta bolting out to a two-set lead before Zverev took command.
Zverev showed a massive heart and deep resilience of his own, but will rue his 15 double faults, many of them coming at the worst possible time, including the decisive tie-breaker, when he had two. Zverev seemed poised to take the title when he forged a massive break in the eighth game of the fifth set, going up 5-3 when Thiem knocked an errant backhand pass. But serving for the championship, Zverev missed a forehand volley as Thiem broke back. Thiem leveled the climactic set at 5-5 with an artful forehand passing winner down the line, then broke Zverev one more time, and now he was serving for the match.
And now it was Zverev who came back from the brink, spanking a forehand winner to take it to the breaker.
The 6-foot-6 Zverev showcased his punishing, long-limbed power over the opening sets, Thiem setting up so deep on his serves he almost needed an Uber to get to the baseline. Zverev smoked 16 winners to Thiem’s four in the first set, losing only three points on his serve. Even as Thiem’s level gradually rose through the second set, and he fought his way back in, Zverev hung in admirably. After they exchanged breaks to start the fifth, Zverev had a brilliant hold, winning one of the points of the tournament, a 25-stroke rally full of dazzling shotmaking, Zverev finishing it with a forehand drop volley winner.
The battle went on. Near the end, Thiem appeared to be cramping, impairing his movement. They looked like boxers in the final round, almost out on their feet. Still Zverev saved two match points at 6-4 in the breaker. It was 6-6, on Zverev’s serve, but Thiem hit a forehand passing winner, and Zverev sailed a backhand wide on the third match point.
The party was on for Thiem and his team, not so much for his friend, Sascha Zverev.
“Man, this is tough,” he said. He spoke again about his parents, the tears still falling.
“I wish one day that I can bring the trophy home,” Zverev said.
Follow Wayne Coffey on Twitter @wr_coffey
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dominic Thiem outlasts Alexander Zverev, comes back from two sets down to win US Open and first Grand Slam title