French Open: Diego Schwartzman wrestles Dominic Thiem and is in the semi-finals for the first time
Diego Schwartzman is in his first Grand Slam semi-final at the 2020 French Open. The Argentine defeated Dominic Thiem in an unbelievable match after five hours 7: 6 (1), 5: 7, 6: 7 (6), 7: 6 (5) and 6: 2 ( You can watch the match here in Re -Live read ). In the semifinals, either Rafael Nadal or Jannik Sinner is waiting.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Oct 06, 2020, 08:48 pm
Much had been discussed in the run-up to the quarter-final duel between Dominic Thiem and Diego Schwartzman about the fitness of the Austrian, about the fitness of the man who celebrated his greatest career success at the US Open in New York City just over two weeks ago. "My tanks are no longer completely full," said Thiem himself, before the upcoming quarter-finals against his Argentine friend.
He presented himself especially in the weeks before - and also at the French Open itself in impressive shape, was even able to defeat the clay court king Rafael Nadal at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Rome - and gave up in the course of the Grand Slam at Bois de Bolougne not a sentence on the way to the round of the last eight. The starting position before this match was correspondingly balanced - although Thiem is ahead in both the world rankings and head-to-head.
Thiem creates the first break
In extremely difficult and windy conditions, the nimble Argentine got the better start of this match, knocked on Thiems in the first service game, but missed a break chance. So the 28-year-old was able to make his service games more confidently than the Austrian, but Schwartzman could not buy much of that after the Austrian benefited from a wrong decision in the sixth game and secured the first break of the game.
The Austrian was unable to secure a decisive advantage as a result, the newly crowned US Open winner scattered too many unsuccessful stops in the following service game and had to take the rebound. But now both actors had found their way into the game as a setback, Thiem found two breakballs again in the next game - Schwartzman fended them off with great tennis and equalized to 4: 4.
Schwartzman takes set one in the tie-break
The tactics of the two players were already evident in the first games of this match, Schwartzman tried to force Thiem into long rallies, promising the desired success, especially through the backhand side of his opponent. The Austrian, on the other hand, tried to put his strong forehand in the limelight early on, and also like to shorten the rallies after heavy serves on the net.
After the Austrian was able to prevent a self-fall at the score of 4: 4 and was able to fend off a breakball, Schwartzman also freed himself from a pressure situation after a 0:30. With the strong help of Dominic Thiem. A similar constellation emerged with the score of 6: 5 for the man from Lichtenwörth, again the world number three could not make a profit from it. A tiebreak had to bring the decision. In this, nothing came together at Thiem, the Argentine quickly pulled away 5-0 - and grabbed set one after a little more than an hour with 7: 6 (1).
Thiem also in sentence two with the first break
However, this did not leave a great mark on the world number three, the Austrian made the break in the first game - benefiting from some unforced mistakes made by the Argentine. The 27-year-old kept the break lead up to 3: 2, but then the Austrian sprinkled a weak service game and had to accept the rebreak with a double fault. The conditions with light rain and the gusty wind seemed to annoy Thiem more and more as the game continued, the world ranking third now showed quite below average tennis, now looked visibly tired.
Nevertheless, it was again Dominic Thiem who had it on the bat to break in front again in this second round. In an insanely competitive service game that lasted over 15 minutes, Schwartzman finally secured the 5: 4 - after he was able to fend off a total of seven breakballs with partly sensational volleys. Now the Lichtenwörther had to serve against the 2-0 set deficit, made the completely wrong decision with four stops - but was incredibly lucky that Schwartzman interspersed three hair-raising mistakes - 5: 5. The Argentine now thought about it, played a weak service game and suffered the break. The 28-year-old should not recover from that, Thiem got the second set 7: 5 after exactly two hours and 13 minutes.
Mad fight
The gaucho was now clearly counted, and made 22 unforced errors in set two alone. Even at the beginning of the third round, little changed in this condition of the South American, who continued to be extremely error-prone and had to accept the break right at the start of the set. Thiem could not take this momentum with him, however, the Austrian visibly sapped his strength and tried with sometimes hopeless stops to shorten the points. After a real break orgy it was 3-2 for the Argentine. Meanwhile, the game at Court Philippe-Chatrier was more like chess than a tennis game - the two athletes pushed the ball backhand cross-court over the net umpteen times until one of the two finally made a mistake.
After both athletes were able to perform their serve once for a change in this set, Thiem scattered one or the other mistake too much at the score of 3: 4 and had to give up his service. Diego Schwartzman succeeded in the same feat a little later, the Argentine delivered a catastrophic service game - 4: 5. In view of the veritable flood of breaks in the course of this set, the real challenge was just ahead, Thiem had to serve against the loss of the set, was able to defuse a set ball and after exactly three hours equaled to 5: 5.
Thiem with a 2: 1 set lead
Now Dominic Thiem had a clear mental advantage, attacked Schwartzmans in the next service game and made the break after a backhand error by the Argentine. Suddenly the 28-year-old had to serve against the loss of a set, at the latest by this point in time anything seemed to be possible in this match. Also that Thiem was now more error-prone again - and had to accept another rebreak after an incredibly strong return from the gaucho. Number eight in that sentence. So it went into the tiebreak, in which the reigning US Open champion got off to a better start and was able to make it 4: 1 with some sensational forehand winners. At 6: 4 there were two set balls for the Austrian - but Schwartzman was able to fend off both with courageous attacks. The Lichtenwörther got the third set ball a little later, which he was finally able to use after a strong attack on the net.
Now Diego Schwartzman was clearly counted, while with Dominic Thiem everything suddenly seemed to come together. The Austrian got off to a dream start in round four, managed his serve confidently and broke the Argentine by 30. But he didn't open up, managed the rebreak a little out of nowhere and equalized a little later. The man from Buenos Aires even managed another break, now the 28-year-old was suddenly in front with two games. Although the Austrian was able to shorten the game with good serves at 3: 5 0:30, Schwartzman had to end the set with his own serve. That seemed to the world number 14. In the beginning, he succeeded brilliantly, the Argentine quickly got three set balls, Thiem fended off all of them, played an impossible forehand out of the distress at 30:40 and managed the rebreak a little later.
A battle of nerves
In the meantime, both players showed partly astronomical tennis with visible physical complaints, Schwartzman secured a 0:30 in the next game, Thiem was able to equalize with two incredible points, but then still had breakball against him. Hardly anyone at the Philippe-Chatrier court could grasp how strong the Austrian was able to fend off this. Thiem trailed two service winners - suddenly the 27-year-old was 6: 5 in the front. But the Argentine mastered the gigantic pressure and secured the competitive twelfth game - for the third time in this match, the short decision had to be made.
In this, the Lower Austrian got off to a better start, secured the first mini break, but had to return it immediately. But after a sensational baseline swap, it was again the Austrian who scored a point when his opponent served. Then Thiem had to give up both points at his own serve, but this mini-break was also equalized - with an insane point from Thiem. Nevertheless, Schwartzman got a set ball at 6: 5, which the 28-year-old was able to convert after a completely distorted backhand from the Austrian.
A fifth sentence, of course
It had to be like that. This match could only find its decision in a fifth set. At the start of this, both players found their way back to their sovereignty on their own serve, played through the first two service games before the Argentine snapped the break with a score of 3: 2 after three unforced errors to zero. The 28-year-old was able to confirm the break a little later and pulled away to 5: 2. Dominic Thiem could not recover from that, the 27-year-old was exhausted and had to score 6: 7 (1), 7: 5, 7: 6 (6), 6: 7 (5) and 2 after five hours and eight minutes : Accept 6 defeat.
"In the end, I think I deserved to win this game. I'm incredibly happy," said the happy winner in an on-court interview right after the match. Diego Schwartzman is now in his first Grand Slam semi-final and will now face the winner of the second semi-final between Rafael Nadal and Jannik Sinner ( you can follow the match in the match tracker here ). Both now have a two-day break, as the semi-finals will not be played until Friday.
Here you can read the match in re-live.
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