Dominic Thiem entered the 2020 Australian Open final by beating Germany’s Alexander Zverev in their 2020 Australian Open encounter.
Thiem overturned the loss of the first set to come back and win the next three, gruelling sets, finishing the encounter 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-6. He will now take on Novak Djokovic in the final which will be played on Sunday.
In a match that lasted over three and a half hours, Zverev started off with some brilliant serving but saw it collapse towards the latter half of the encounter.
[the_ad id=”14063″]
It was a bizarre start to the match as both players dropped their first service game before the serves went on hold till 3-3. The seventh game of the set saw Zverev get the more significant break and then went on to break Thiem yet again to win the opening set.
The way Zverev began the second set it looked like he was in the mood to finish things off the way he had all tournament, finishing off the opening game in a minute. However, Thiem showed some of his own fighting qualities when he broke him next game but two games later, he was broken back by Zverev who made it 3-3.
Service issues continued as Thiem went 5-3 up but struggled to hold it again in the 10th game of the second set. However, in that very game he got his first set-point of the match which he converted with an ace.
Also Read:
And the same problem continued in the third set too when Thiem first broke Zverev in the third game but the German came back in the sixth to level things up. A strong service game from Zverev in the ninth gave him a chance against the faltering Thiem serve and a couple of set-points but it went into the tie-breaker.
Thiem got the early mini-break in the tie-breaker and maintained it to move 5-2 ahead. Zverev held on to one of his serves but dropped the other to afford his opponent three set-points of which the Austrian needed just one to win the third set.
Shot of the WEEK, @AlexZverev?#AO2020 | #AusOpen | @espn | @Channel9 pic.twitter.com/IEKmq0T0CF
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 31, 2020
The fourth set went to serve despite the nerves that went with playing at that level for the first time in this major. The tie-breaker that followed saw Thiem get an early break and a 3-0 lead before he helped himself to three match-points. Zverev saved the first but Thiem came back to convert the second and set up the final berth.
Be the first to comment