Thiem takes his time to outlast Cecchinato to reach first final
DOMINIC Thiem ended Marco Cecchinato’s French Open fairytale to reach his first Grand Slam final with a 7-5, 7-6 (12-10), 6-1 victory.
Seventh seed Thiem is the first Austrian to make a final at the majors since Thomas Muster was champion in Paris in 1995.
Thiem will face either 10-time champion, and world number one, Rafael Nadal or Juan Martin del Potro, the fifth-seeded Argentine, in Sunday’s final.
World 72 Cecchinato had knocked out three seeded players to reach the semi-finals, including 12-time major winner Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals.
Thiem, 24, has a losing record against both Nadal (3-6) and Del Potro (0-4) but he is the only man to have defeated the Spaniard on clay in the last two years.
He believes he has a particularly powerful weapon on his side –breakfast.
“I need to regenerate and have a good breakfast to keep up my good level.
“Full power on Sunday.” Thiem, who was playing in his third successive French Open semi-final, admitted the second set had been a nervy encounter after needing five set points to get through it yesterday.
“The big key was the second set,” he said.
“It was a really close tiebreak and I didn’t want that especially after I missed an easy volley at 6-4. “That was not a nice feeling.” Cecchinato had never won a Grand Slam match before this year’s Roland Garros but made the semis with a string of stunning wins.
He put out seeded players Pablo Carreno Busta and David Goffin before the seismic shock of knocking out 2016 champion Djokovic in the quarter-finals.
“Today, all day, on Philippe Chatrier, the fans said ‘ Forza, Marco’, so I think this is the best moment for me,” said Cecchinato.
“Against Dominic Thiem, he is top 10, and today all the people were for me.”
Thiem, who swept past second seed Alexander Zverev in the lasteight, broke the Italian in the first game.
By the sixth game of the opener, Cecchinato had claimed just one point off the Austrian’s serve.
Despite the defeat, a cheque for US$658,000 (RM2.6 mil) will help ease the pain as will a move into the top 30 next week.