It wasn’t easy or pretty, but 27-year-old Dominic Thiem is now a major champion. In defeating Alexander Zverev 2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (6) he has achieved tennis glory on the highest stage, in truly unusual fashion.
In the fourth straight five-set men’s major final and the third consecutive men’s major final that pitted the second seed against the fifth seed, Thiem was a solid favorite, but was rendered helpless for the first hour of the match as Zverev blazed huge serves through the court and displayed a soft touch at the net. But with Zverev up 5-1 in the second set, Thiem started to shift the flow of the match, albeit gradually at first. The final appeared to be headed towards a straight-set thrashing when Zverev went up a break in the third set, but a combination of Thiem rounding into form and Zverev’s nervousness caused the momentum to flip.
“Nervous” might well be the best word to describe the play in the bizarre match. While at times spellbinding, the tennis was often ugly on both sides of the court as the finalists grappled with the notion of winning a major title. Both men served for the match in the fifth set and were broken. Thiem double faulted on break point at 1-0 up in the final frame. Zverev double faulted twice in the do-or-die tiebreak. But Thiem displayed great resilience to mount a gargantuan comeback by winning the last three sets. At 6-all in the breaker, he defeated Zverev with a sizzling three-shot pass, then fell to the surface of the court in exhausted relief as Zverev’s last shot sailed wide.
Collapsing to the court is not an uncommon reaction to winning a major, but Thiem appeared relieved rather than ecstatic as he fell, and for good reason. Though his victory was in many ways very impressive, Thiem had narrowly avoided a devastating choke, having made unforced errors on match points at 6-4 and 6-5 up in the tiebreak.
Thiem was able to do what the man he defeated in the semifinal, Daniil Medvedev, was unable to do in last year’s final: win from two sets and a break down. Though this match wasn’t in the same league quality-wise, Thiem acted as the latest reminder that perseverance pays in tennis, and it will matter little to Thiem how the major was won. After two years spent in the shadow of Djokovic and Nadal at the majors, he is at last alone in the sun.
Zverev, who was playing in his first major final, was understandably shattered after the match. His tears during his post-match speech, besides striking viewers with empathy, reinforced the perception that he may well not get another great chance to win a major for some time. Besides losing his two-set lead, Zverev was two points away from winning the match three times, never reaching match point. Having never been past the quarterfinals at Roland-Garros and given the return of 12-time champion Rafael Nadal, it is unlikely that Zverev wins his first major in Paris this year, and 2021 will see Roger Federer return alongside Nadal and Djokovic, the winner of five of the last eight majors.
But the stranglehold of Djokovic, Nadal, and Federer (the Big Three) on tennis’s major tournaments has at last been broken, though the latter two members of the exclusive club did not play this U.S. Open and Djokovic was defaulted in his fourth-round match.
This may well be the confidence boost Thiem needs to top Djokovic or Nadal in a major final. With the burden of not having won a major off his back, it’s possible that Thiem will play the top two players in the world with greater freedom and self-belief in the future.
Perhaps the guard is finally changing after all.