Thiem stops Zverev, is in men’s final

MELBOURNE, Australia — Locked in an evenascanbe Australian Open semifinal, Dominic Thiem looked up at his guest box, patted his belly and stuck out his tongue, as if to indicate he was feeling sick. He shook his head. He winced.

Whatever might have been going on, Thiem turned out to be just fine — well enough to play, well enough to win.

The 26yearold Austrian reached his third Grand Slam final overall and first at Melbourne Park by using his baseline bullying and bigmoment bravado to beat Alexander Zverev 36, 64, 76 (3), 76 (4) on Friday night.

“I was feeling nerves, I think. I was putting so much energy, so much effort in, so my stomach was not ready for that. I think it was rebelling a little bit,” Thiem said, laughing about what happened. “But all good. I sometimes have it when I have tough matches.”

The fifthseeded Thiem’s opponent in the title match Sunday will be No. 2 Novak Djokovic, the defending champion, who eliminated Roger Federer on Thursday.

Djokovic, 32, will be appearing in his record eighth Australian Open final and 26th Grand Slam final overall. While Thiem eyes his first major trophy, Djokovic is going for No. 17, which would move him within three of Federer’s record of 20. Rafael Nadal, with 19, is the only other man ahead of Djokovic.

Thiem’s two previous major finals came on the red clay of the French Open, where he was the runnerup to 12time champion Nadal each of the past two years.

Now he will face a similar challenge: Djokovic owns a record seven titles from the hard courts of the Australian Open.