Tennis
ANALYSIS: WIN IN ‘CRUEL’ US OPEN FINAL SHOWS THIEM’S PROMISE
By HOWARD FENDRICH
Fifteen hours after Dominic Thiem collapsed on the court as the U.S. Open champion — his mind weary, his legs weak — he smiled when asked how he felt getting out of bed Monday.
“Well, I didn’t wake up today, because I didn’t sleep for one second. I was still full of emotions, full of adrenaline,” Thiem said from Arthur Ashe Stadium in a video interview with two reporters, his new trophy at arm’s reach. “We were sitting having dinner in the room until, like 4 (a.m.), and then just couldn’t fall asleep. But it’s fine.”
Of course it’s fine. After all, the 27-year-old from Austria went into Sunday 0-3 in Grand Slam finals and dealt with all of the doubts that came along with that record.
And now? He is the first new men’s Grand Slam champion in six years.
For all the talent and confidence someone like Thiem might possess, it takes actually doing something to know that it truly was possible.
He emerged to beat Alexander Zverev 2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (6) on Sunday night in the first U.S. Open final decided by a fifth-set tiebreaker. The victory also came via the first comeback from a two-set deficit in the tournament’s final since 1949.
“A cruel match,” Thiem called it. “A big drama.”
Consider the other side of the net, for a moment: Zverev was up by two sets and a break, and he let that entire lead get away.
Then he went ahead 5-3 in the fifth and served for the championship. That slipped through his grasp, too.
“I was a few games away, maybe a few points away,” Zverev said. “I mean, I’m 23 years old. I don’t think it’s my last chance. I do believe that I will be a Grand Slam champion at some point.”
While it’s certainly not time to write off the Big Three just yet, Thiem’s victory at the U.S. Open showed him — and everyone else — that he is the guy who could be ready to emerge from the pack as more and more opportunities to win major trophies arise.
Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic had combined to win the 13 preceding Grand Slam tournaments (and 56 of the past 67), and while Federer is out for the season after two knee operations, the other two will be eager to start a new streak at the French Open, which is right around the corner.
That’s because while the hard courts of Flushing Meadows usually close the Grand Slam season, the clay courts of Roland Garros follow in this most unusual year. The French Open was postponed from May due to the coranvirus pandemic and is scheduled to start in Paris on Sept. 27 (and, unlike the U.S. Open, with fans allowed).
“For sure, Dominic needs to rest, to recover,” said his coach, Nicolas Massu, “then we start to practice again on clay.”
Thiem said he would fly to Vienna on Monday, give himself some time off until next weekend, then get on the red stuff to prepare for Roland Garros.
He figures what happened Sunday — well, over the past two weeks, really — will change how he views himself the next time he competes.
And, he hopes, forever.
The way Thiem sees it, he became a different person, a different player, on Sunday.
He finally was able to move past his heavy-on-the-mind setbacks in the finals of the 2018 and 2019 French Open against Nadal and the 2020 Australian Open against Djokovic.
“Every Grand Slam tournament was also a huge amount of pressure for me, especially when I started to lose the first final, then the second, then this pretty painful loss in Australia earlier this year. So the pressure got bigger and bigger, somehow,” Thiem said.
“And it’s all gone now, obviously, because no matter what happens from now on, I can always say that I’m a U.S. Open champion. That’s absolutely amazing to me,” he continued. “I hope it frees me up a little bit, that it relaxes me a little bit on court, and makes me better.”
-AP
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Howard Fendrich covers tennis for The Associated Press. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/HowardFendrich or write to him at [email protected]
Argentina’s 36-year-old Marco Trungelliti proved tennis dreams do not come with an expiration date when he became the oldest first-time tour-level finalist in the Open Era after beating the top seed at the Grand Prix Hassan II semi-finals in Marrakech on Saturday.
Trungelliti, who came through the tournament’s qualifiers, upset Italy’s defending champion Luciano Darderi 6-4 7-6(2) to break the previous record held by Victor Estrella Burgos of the Dominican Republic, who reached his first final aged 34 years in 2015.
Darderi, ranked 19 in the world, was only six-years-old when Trungelliti turned pro in 2008. With the victory, Trungelliti secured just his second career top-20 win.
“Of course, I believed it, that’s one of the reasons that I’m here. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be possible,” Trungelliti said in the on-court interview.
“I’ve worked a lot, me and my team and also my wife, my kid. We all believed in breaking the record basically and that’s exactly what we have done now.”
The milestone caps a remarkable journey for Trungelliti, who made his first ATP Tour semi-final in 2018 in Umag, Croatia – 402 weeks ago.
Having entered the tournament ranked 117 in the world, Trungelliti’s breakthrough week has already guaranteed he will crack the top 100 for the first time. He is currently ranked number 75 in the live rankings.
“It’s been happening the whole week, leaving the court with a victory,” added Trungelliti, who has dropped only one set at the tournament. “So hopefully (there) is one more to go.”
He will face Rafael Jodar on Sunday after the Spaniard prevented an all-Argentine final with a 6-2 6-1 victory over Camilo Ugo Carabelli.
-Reuters
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Serena Williams has been listed as eligible to return to tennis by the sport’s drug-testing body (ITIA) as of February 22, though it remains unclear whether the 23-time Grand Slam champion will make a stunning comeback to the women’s tour.
The 44-year-old raised eyebrows late last year after rejoining the tennis anti-doping testing pool, though she denied at the time the move signalled she was preparing to return to the sport she dominated for nearly two decades.
She reignited speculation last month when she deflected questions about a possible return during an appearance on NBC’s “Today” show.
The Women’s Tennis Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside normal business hours.
Williams, who won her last Grand Slam singles title in 2017, has not competed since the 2022 U.S. Open.
-Reuters
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Serena Williams has re-entered the tennis anti-doping testing pool but the 23-times Grand Slam champion denied on Tuesday that the move had anything to do with her making a return to the sport she dominated for nearly two decades.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency confirmed to Reuters that Williams, who has not competed since the 2022 U.S. Open, was among the list of players in its testing pool, which requires individuals to provide their whereabouts at any given time, every day, and participate in random testing
But as the story of 44-year-old Williams’ inclusion on the list, first reported earlier on Tuesday by The Athletic, gained traction and sparked talk about her potential return, the tennis great took to social media to deny a comeback was in her plans.
“Omg yall I’m NOT coming back. This wildfire is crazy,” Williams wrote on X.
Her agent did not immediately respond to an email from Reuters asking why the player had re-entered the testing pool.
Williams’ name appears on the ITIA website’s list of retired players and would be able to return to a sanctioned event after making herself available for out-of-competition testing for at least six months.
Last week former world number one Williams posted a series of photos on Instagram showing herself on a tennis court with her youngest daughter, Adira River, whom she gave birth to in August 2023.
In August 2022, ahead of her final U.S. Open, Williams announced in a Vogue article that she was “evolving away from tennis.”
Williams, who won her last Grand Slam singles title in 2017, had been chasing an elusive 24th crown that would have drawn her level with Australian Margaret Court, who holds the record.
The American came tantalisingly close to achieving that feat, featuring in four major finals since giving birth to her first daughter, Olympia, in 2017.
-Reuters
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