Melbourne, Australia
Emptiness. Exhaustion. All-too-familiar feelings for Dominic Thiem after a Grand Slam final. He has lost three on the biggest stage at the majors, adding a five-set loss to Novak Djokovic on the hard courts at Melbourne Park on Sunday to his two against Rafael Nadal on the red clay at Roland Garros.
Each time he’s come up against the greatest-of-all-time at that particular venue. He had to beat top-seeded Nadal in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, then a fellow up-and-comer, Alexander Zverev, in the semifinals.
Just to get a shot at Djokovic, who had won all seven previous times he’d reached the Australian final, Thiem had spent almost 18 1/2 hours on court and beaten four seeded players through six rounds. Djokovic had spent almost six fewer hours in action, and had only dropped one set in the tournament.
“I’ve rarely felt physically (so) tired, especially now after all the tension’s gone,” Thiem said after losing 6-4, 4-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Rod Laver Arena.
After recovering a break in the first set, Thiem surrendered it with a double-fault — his first. He rebounded and, from 4-4 in the second, won six straight games and took the next two sets, with his hard, flat ground strokes troubling Djokovic.
And then, after being one set from a breakthrough major title, the 26-year-old Austrian had to accept being runner-up again after a four-hour final. Even Djokovic admitted just one or two shots made the difference.—AP
