Djoker Dominicked
Thiem trumps Djokovic in ATP Finals thriller
London, Nov. 13: Dominic Thiem produced a scintillating display of attacking tennis to beat Novak Djokovic and qualify for the last four at the ATP Finals on Tuesday, leaving the Serbian facing a shootout against Roger Federer.
In the standout match so far at London’s O2 Arena, the Austrian fifth seed took the fight to the world number two, recovering from losing the first set to triumph 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 7-6
(7/5).
Earlier, Federer put himself back in the mix at the end-of-season event with a
7-6 (7/2), 6-3 win against Italian debutant Matteo Berrettini in their roundrobin clash.
Federer and Djokovic will face off on Thursday in a repeat of this year’s Wimbledon final to determine who else will progress from Group Bjorn Borg.
Thiem was forced to play high-stakes tennis against the 16-time Grand Slam winner, taking the breath away with some of his inside-out forehands and single-handed backhands Forced to play at his limit, he hit 50 winners compared with Djokovic’s tally of 27 but also racked up 44 unforced errors.
“This was really one of these special matches, what I’ve practised all my life for, all my childhood for,” Thiem said.
“Really epic one in an amazing atmosphere, beating a legend of our game. And also I’ve qualified for the semifinals, which is the best.
“Coming back from 1-4 (down in the deciding tiebreak) was a little bit of luck, but it was an unbelievable match and one I’ll never forget. Novak is the best player in the world and I had to do something special,” he said.
In a captivating first set the players swapped a break apiece but Djokovic, a five-time ATP Finals champion, edged the tiebreak. Undaunted, Thiem broke his opponent at the first opportunity in the second set and, with Djokovic’s errors, went on to level the match.
Thiem also drew first blood in the decider but cracked in the sixth game as Djokovic levelled the match and appeared to have engineered a switch in momentum.
The Austrian successfully challenged at 30-30 in the 10th game after his forehand was ruled out, preventing a match point for Djokovic and he toughed it out to level at 55. He then broke Djokovic to love to earn a chance to serve for the match but stumbled and the decider went to a tie-break.
Still the drama was not finished. Thiem slipped to 4-1 down but battled back to win it on his second match point when Djokovic dumped a forehand into the net.
Djokovic is hunting a sixth ATP Finals title to pull level with Federer’s record and is also seeking to pip Rafael Nadal to the year-end number one ranking. —