"My career is like this final: many ups and downs, but I'm happy with how it went."
Austrian tennis player Dominic Tiem (world No. 3) described the meaning of his victory at the US Open, the first in a Grand Slam, where he beat the German Sacha Zverev 2-6 4-6 6-4 6 in a comeback. -3 7-6 (8-6).
No one had ever recovered two sets in the Flushing Meadows final.
An expected success for the 27-year-old, eternal great promise of world tennis.
The predictions gave him a winner against his friend of Russian origin: in the previous nine matches, he had in fact prevailed 7 times.
The eighth victory was staged on the central court of the New York facility, in a surreal context, without an audience, without enthusiasm, without any party, other than the final one made up of smiles more than anything else, of the winner, in the deafening silence at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Thiem won the US Open at the end of an epic match, which started badly for him.
In fact, he went down by two sets, and already the rival was beginning to savor the taste of victory.
But just a step away from the knockout, Thiem woke up and another race began, an extraordinary comeback, with a great impact, also seasoned with services stolen from each other and spectacular plays, too bad there was no public.
A four-hour marathon, at the end of which the two looked like boxers tired of the blows taken and given;
exhausted by fatigue, they chased every ball with their residual energy, giving the impression of being able to collapse at any moment;
she ended up at the tie-break with her heart in her throat, with the fear of making the decisive mistake.
And it was precisely a backhand mistake by the German to deliver the title to Thiem, who celebrated by lying on the ground to look at the sky, while the very disappointed Zverev barely held back the tears that he will no longer deal with during the award ceremony.
Strength and experience prevailed, perhaps even Thiem's greater physical freshness;
Zverev still had the weight of more than 4 hours of semifinal with Carreno Busta on his legs.
"In the match I felt strong pressure, I experienced intense emotions. Physically it was very hard. The last few weeks have not been easy, neither physically nor mentally" commented the first Grand Slam champion born in the nineties.
