The Citizen (Gauteng)

Thiem thrills in ATP epic

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– Dominic Thiem, above, produced a scintillat­ing display of attacking tennis to beat Novak Djokovic and qualify for the lastfour at the ATP Finals on Tuesday, leaving the Serbian world No 2 seed facing a shoot-out against Roger Federer.

In the standout match so far at London’s O2 Arena, Austrian fifth seed Thiem took the fight to Djokovic, recovering from losing the first set to triumph 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 7-6 (7/5)

Earlier, Federer had put himself back in the mix at the end-ofseason event with a 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 win against Italian debutant Matteo Berrettini in their round-robin clash.

Federer and Djokovic will face off today in a repeat of this year’s Wimbledon final to determine who else will progress from Group Bjorn Borg.

Thiem was forced to play highstakes 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 tie-break] 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.”

Third-seed Federer had put himself under the cosh by losing his opening round-robin match to Thiem. The six-time champion was not at his fluent best on Tuesday but ultimately had too much for his Italian opponent.

Federer was asked after his win against Berrettini whether his defeat to Djokovic at Wimbledon had left emotional or mental scars.

“We’ll find out, but I think it’s all flushed away from my side,” said the Swiss. “A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then.”

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 No 1 ranking.

On Monday, top-seed Nadal lost his opener in Group Andre Agassi to defending champion Alexander Zverev while Stefanos Tsitsipas beat Daniil Medvedev. –

London

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