Dominic Thiem has won the US Open 2020 event after he staged a remarkable comeback to clinch his first Grand Slam title, battling back from two sets down to defeat Alexander Zverev 2-6 4-6 6-4 6-3 7-6 (8-6) in the final of the US Open on Sunday, 13 September 2020.
Thiem, who had lost all three of his previous Grand Slam finals could barely walk after the match but he finally stepped out of the shadows of his illustrious contemporaries to claim his maiden Grand Slam at Flushing Meadows.
Second seed Thiem twice lost to Rafael Nadal at the French Open and lost to world No 1 Novak Djokovic in Australia earlier this year, but he finally got over the line in New York.
Tennis now has a new Grand Slam champion in Thiem for the first time since Marin Cilic clinched the title here in 2014 as Djokovic, Nadal, and Roger Federer, the sport’s big three, were all absent from the final weekend this year.
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Watch the match highlights below…
Thiem paid tribute to his very good friend Zverev saying:
“We made great things happen on the court, as well off the court. It’s amazing how far our journey brought us to share this moment. Really I wish we could have two winners. We both deserve it.
“I remember you told me, ‘You’re going to make it’. I’ll tell you the same thing. You’re going to make it and you’ll definitely bring it home one day.”
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Zverev became the youngest men’s finalist in a Grand Slam for a decade at the age of 23 since Novak Djokovic in 2010. He was also looking to become the first German male winner of the event since Boris Becker in 1989.
Revenge was probably one of his to-do’s after losing to his good friend, Thiem, in their Australian Open semi-final earlier this year and he made an ideal start by breaking in the third game thanks to some brutal hitting.
Zverev, during this tournament, has struggled to find anything like his best form but swung freely and aggressively to take it to Thiem, who seemed nervous.
He quickly moved to be the dominant force with a further break in the seventh game and served out the opener in just 30 minutes losing just three points on serve, which peaked at an impressive 138 mph, as well as hitting 16 winners.
Thiem, having won seven of their previous nine contests, has demonstrated a keen understanding of his opponent’s game, but the head-to-head record went out of the window on Arthur Ashe Stadium as the 27-year-old from Austria fell further behind at the start of the next.
Thiem continued to make more errors which helped contribute to him falling 4-1 down.
The next two games went with serve before the second seed carved out his first break of serve of the match. A wondrous winner on the stretch helped Thiem close the deficit further but Zverev’s serve and volley tactics enabled him to close it out and move one set away from his maiden Grand Slam.
Thiem then made a crucial breakthrough in the eighth game of the fourth set before serving it out to send a drama-filled final into a deciding set shoot-out.
The world number three became only the second Austrian ever to win a Grand Slam title, and the first to triumph at Flushing Meadows in a memorable and astonishing climax to a unique edition of the US Open.
The second seed, who became the first man to come back from two sets down in a US Open singles final in the Open era, is also now the first besides the big three of Rafael Nadal, Djokovic, and Roger Federer to claim a Grand Slam since Stan Wawrinka won at Flushing Meadows in 2016.
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