NEW YORK — Second seed Dominic Thiem came back from two-sets-to-love down Sunday to defeat German fifth seed Alexander Zverev 2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) and clinch a maiden grand slam title at the U.S. Open.
Thiem, who looked in pain and called the trainer late in the decider, is the first Austrian to be crowned singles champion at the U.S. open and the first since Pancho Gonzales in 1949 to successfully rally back from a two-sets-to-love deficit in a final in New York.
“It’s amazing how far away our journey brought us to share this moment with you and I really wish we could have two winners today,” a gracious Thiem told Zverev during his victory speech.
Men’s tennis finally has its first new grand slam winner since 2014 and crowns its first major champion born in the 1990s.
Thiem, 27, trailed Zverev 2-6, 1-5, was down a break early in the third, and limped his way back from 3-5 down in the deciding set en route to a heroic four-hour comeback to end a three-match losing streak in grand slam finals.
The Austrian’s victory ended the streak of the Big Three — Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic — who had won the last 13 consecutive majors.
This was the first U.S. Open championship match to be decided by a final-set tiebreak and it left Zverev heartbroken during the trophy ceremony.
“There are some special people missing in the crowd today. I want to thank my parents, they’re always with me at every tournament I go to; unfortunately my dad and my mother tested positive (for coronavirus) before the tournament and they couldn’t come with me. I miss them,” Zverev, 23, said fighting back tears.
Zverev was playing his first grand slam final and is now 2-8 against Thiem in career meetings. The pair are both good friends and rivals, and are among the top four on the leaderboard for most matches won on tour since 2016, alongside Djokovic and Nadal.
NAOMI OSAKA captured the third Grand Slam title of her career Saturday with a 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Victoria Azarenka to lift her second US Open trophy in three years.
The Japanese fourth seed rallied from a set and a break down to snap Azarenka’s 11-match winning streak and maintain her perfect record in major finals.
Osaka proved her mettle with a gutsy 112-minute win at an empty Arthur Ashe stadium.
This was Osaka’s third win from four meetings with Azarenka, who has now lost all three of her US Open finals. Osaka was pushed to the brink by the two-time Australian Open champion and was quick to give her credit during her victory speech.
“Firstly, I want to congratulate Vika. I actually don’t want to play you in more finals, I didn’t really enjoy that. It was a really tough match for me,” joked Osaka.
The Belarusian Azarenka, one of the best returners in the game, handled Osaka’s serve brilliantly from the start, and extended the rallies with great variety to break twice for an early 4-1 lead.
The former No. 1, now 27 in the world, closed out the set in 27 minutes, dropping just four points on serve.
