After three defeats at this stage of the competition against Rafael Nadal (Roland-Garros 2018 and 2019) and Novak Djokovic (Australian Open 2020), the 27-year-old Austrian reaches his tennis Holy Grail after this funny final against the German Alexander Zverev.
A disjointed and crazy meeting, won by the Austrian (2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 [6]) with two players small arms and caught by the stake.
But the essential is there for Thiem who joins the great family of the winners of Majors, the first newcomer since Marin Cilic, six years ago in New York.
Clay, the preferred surface, but ...
Winner of the Roland-Garros junior final in 2011, the puncher (1.85 m; 82 kg) revealed himself to the general public in 2016 by reaching the semi-finals in Paris.
Of the seventeen titles that garnish its record, ten have been won on clay.
He also managed the performance of beating the king of the surface Rafael Nadal four times on his beloved surface (but never at Roland Garros).
Since 2019, Thiem has also become very comfortable on hard.
This regular at the last four at Roland Garros, had never made it through the quarter-finals elsewhere in a Grand Slam before this year.
From ancient history.
It was on this surface that he won his first Major.
It is also on hard that he won his first Masters 1000, in March 2019 in Indian Wells.
He was also a finalist at the London Masters last November.
Explanations of the person concerned: “I thought for a long time that my best chances were on clay.
But at the end of last year, that changed when I won in Beijing, Vienna and played really well at the Masters.
There, I realized that my game adapted very well to the hard.
So it's not really a surprise to me that it didn't happen in Paris. ”
It's been a long time coming. @ ThiemDomi finally reaches the top. # USOpenpic.twitter.com / 9cZCfEHQQd
- US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 14, 2020
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US Open:" I achieved the goal of a lifetime ", savor Thiem
A real workaholic
Shaped at the school of rough Günter Bresnik, a German coach who notably managed the rise of Boris Becker, Thiem cultivates a taste for effort and has forged a reputation as a workaholic under the guidance of his mentor.
Legend has it that in 2012, to test his resistance to stress, the native of Wiener Neustadt had carried logs on his back, crossed rivers fully dressed and ran in the woods after midnight.
Nicknamed "Dominator" because of his heavy hitting and his "lumberjack" style of play, Thiem has broadened his palette and has become a more complete player under the leadership of his new coach Nicolas Massu, former world 9th in 2004, progressing particularly in the exercise of return of service.
Since the beginning of 2019, the kind Thiem has thus "killed" his tennis father Bresnik, to take a step forward.
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US Open: overthrowing against Zverev in the final, Thiem won his first Grand Slam
He fell out with his compatriot Thomas Muster
In 2011, former Austrian world number one Thomas Muster, 43, played and lost the last match of his career against ... Thiem, 18 (6-2, 6-3).
In his quest for a first Grand Slam, Thiem enlisted in January the services of his glorious elder Thomas Muster, winner of Roland-Garros in 1995. The collaboration was to last twenty weeks, it only lasted ... fifteen days .
Thiem assumed his choice, proved that he had emancipated himself and summed up: "We carried out a test period to see if everything worked, and very quickly, we realized that we did not get along. not as a player and a coach.
We saw things differently and we agreed to stop rather quickly. ”
2. @ThiemDomi is the second Austrian player to win a Grand Slam tournament after Thomas Muster's coronation at Roland Garros in 1995. # USOpenpic.twitter.com / T4uqVM84hc
- Game, Set and Math (@JeuSetMaths) September 14, 2020
He had big bowel problems in his youth
From the age of 16 to 20, Thiem has scoured the South American and Asian circuits and returned with chronic diarrhea and abdominal pain that sometimes made him cough up blood during his matches.
After a month in the hospital, he was discovered the Campylobacter bacterium, involved in diseases such as gastroenteritis.
Since then, he has not coughed up blood on the courts ...
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Thiem" the personal cheek "and does not want to participate in the solidarity fund
He was in a relationship with Kristina Mladenovic
From 2017 to the end of 2019, Dominic Thiem was in a relationship with the French player Kristina Mladenovic, who was regularly seen in the stands to support her champion.
The beautiful story ended at the end of last year.
In 2018, Thiem confided to
Le Figaro
about his love story with the Northerner: “I help her, but she also helps me, because we all have ups and downs.
I see her more often than if I had a girlfriend who is not in the middle.
We talk a lot about tennis.
It's the thing we know best.
But, sometimes, when we are fed up with tennis, we talk about something else… ”
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US Open: "I achieved the goal of a lifetime," says Thiem
