Dominic Thiem
After three Grand Slam final defeats in his career, his latest being the Australian Open loss earlier this year to Novak Djokovic, Dominic Thiem finally had his arms around a major title as he defeated third-seeded Alexander Zverev in a five-set thriller at the Billie Jean King National Stadium on Sunday to win the US Open title and his maiden Grand Slam trophy.
Thiem became the first non-Big Three player to win a Grand Slam title since Marin Cilic in 2014, who had also lifted his career's only major at the US Open.
Zverev was dominant on his serve and took the first set of the U.S. Open 6-2 against a shaky Dominic Thiem.
Zverev won 16 of 19 points on his serve, which reached 138 mph. He also broke Thiem's serve twice.
It's only the second set lost by the No. 2-seeded Thiem in the tournament.
The German then went a set away from his first Grand Slam title after dominating the first two sets of the U.S. Open final.
Zverev led Thiem 6-2, 6-4, in good shape to become Germany's first men's major champion since Boris Becker at the 1996 Australian Open.
The No. 2-seeded Thiem predicted a close match but it's been mostly a rout. Zverev, the No. 5 seed, opened a 5-1 lead in the second set before Thiem won three straight games to make it close.
Thiem has forced a fourth set against Alexander Zverev in the U.S. Open men’s final.
The No. 2 seed took the third set 6-4, keeping alive his hopes of winning his first Grand Slam title.
Thiem overcame an early break of serve in the third set by breaking right back to even the set, then won it when he broke the fifth-seeded Zverev again in the final game.
Thiem won the fourth set 6-3 and is trying to complete the biggest comeback in the U.S. Open final in more than 70 years.
Alexander Zverev had won the first two sets and now is trying to keep Thiem from completing the same rally he did two nights earlier, when he dropped the first two sets against Pablo Carreño Busta.
He became the fifth man to come back to win the final after dropping the opening two sets in tournament history, but first since 1949, when it was known as the U.S. Championships.
