Dominic Thiem defeated home favourite Filip Krajinovic in the final of the first leg of Adria Tour on Sunday to cap off a brilliant week as tennis emerged out of coronavirus shadows with some of the biggest stars in action.
Thiem, who had gone undefeated in the round-robin stage, defeated Krajinovic 4-3 (2), 2-4, 4-2 to win the title in Belgrade.
Thiem took to Instagram to thank Novak Djokovic for the event and said the event created memories of a lifetime for him.
"Hvala Belgrade and special thanks to @djokernole and his team for hosting a great tournament and creating memories that will last for a lifetime!" he wrote.
After the match, Thiem assessed his game throughout the week and called it a "perfect weekend".
"I played some matches in Austria, but this event was different," Thiem was quoted as by tennis.com. "We had high quality players and played in front of a huge crowd. It was my first time in Serbia and it was amazing. It was a perfect weekend."
Thiem further expressed satisfaction on his level and said he was elated having won all his matches.
"I'm happy with the level I played this week. I've been fully in practice for quite a while - I played seven matches in Austria," he said. "But I have to say, it's something very different with the big crowd. You're a little bit tight and you want to play better, because you're not just playing for yourself, you also want to give the fans a good show. So I'm super happy that I won all of my matches."
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"It's always nice to win a trophy, of course, but that was not the main cause for me to come here," he added. "It's great that it ended up like that, but first of all I had a really great time here. I had an amazing weekend. It was for a good cause, too, so it couldn't be better. So, a big thank you to Novak and his team, his family, for organizing this great event, and making the time special for us here.
"We've all had pretty tough times the last weeks, the last months, and we didn't see each other. We all have a great relationship with each other, and we've had some great quality time together here," he added.
Thiem also announced his prize money will be going to two charities - the St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute in Vienna, as well as a brittle bone disease charity.
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