French Open: Thiem with final entry and German double victory
While Dominic Thiem was able to celebrate a hard-fought semi-final victory against Novak Djokovic, the German duo Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies achieved a historic event by winning the doubles.
by Jörg Allmeroth
last edit: Jun 08, 2019, 09:21 pm
By Jörg Allmeroth from Paris
Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies had to wait a long time for their assignment this Saturday. First there was overtime between Dominic Thiem and Novak Djokovic, with winner and re-finalist Thiem. Then there was the women's endgame and the new French Open Queen Ashleigh Barty from Australia. But then it was finally the doubles' turn, and Krawietz and Mies got going quickly and enormously. Nothing and nobody could stop the Coburg Krawietz and the Cologne Mies on their historic mission: 82 years after the legendary ancestors Gottfried von Cramm and Henner Henkel, a German duo finally won a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.
Outsiders, front runners: In this parade role, Krawietz and Mies rushed for their 6: 2, 7: 6 (7: 3) victory against French local heroes Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin - and sat sensationally enough on the throne of Paris. "It is a day that is a dream for us," said Krawietz, who was moved to tears. The two allies on the Center Court had only met a year and a half ago and had previously played mostly in Challenger tournaments - in other words, in the second division of the world tennis. The two Germans were on the ground only once - but then everything was over, when they had just turned their first match ball into the tiebreak crime thriller of the second set and tumbled down into the red sand. By the way: It was the biggest payday for the previous marginal figures in international but also in German tennis, the common wages was 580,000 euros. At 8:11 p.m. they proudly raised the trophy into the Parisian evening sky.
Krawietz and Mies got started in this endgame like the fire brigade, so gripping and determined as if it were the most natural thing to be in a match of this quality class. After a quarter of an hour it was already 4: 0 for the wonderfully harmonizing Germans, a little later the first set was 6: 2 under lock and key. The French favorites got better in the second round, but Krawietz and Mies admitted little or nothing, they had no break ball to fend off. They also kept their nerves together in the tie-break, turning a 2: 3 deficit into a 6: 3 lead. And then immediately transformed the first match ball. The match ball of her career, the match ball of her life in tennis.
Australian Ashleigh Barty had previously climbed to the French Open queen in the capers of Paris - the only top ten player to make it to the top four. Without any effort, with great playful superiority and sovereignty, Barty won 6: 1 and 6: 3 against the Czech Marketa Vondrousova. "It's been two crazy weeks, one is a great ending now," said the 23-year-old winner, who has since left the tennis business and tried to play cricket. Barty was the first Australian to step onto the Roland Garros throne since Margaret Court in 1973. Before the tournament, she was not considered one of the top candidates for triumph, but she was still a secret candidate. Due to her success, Barty moved from 8th place to 2nd place in the world rankings.
In the men's final, there is a new edition of last year's final duel between the eleven-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal and the Austrian Dominic Thiem. While Nadal was able to take a relaxing rest day after his safe three-set victory in the classic against Roger Federer on Friday, Thiem secured the second final ticket in the overtime of the match against the world rankings leader Novak Djokovic. After a further break in the rain on Saturday, Thiem was at the stop in four hours and 19 minutes, the new final advance - 6: 2, 3: 6, 7: 5, 5: 7 and 7: 5 was the final settlement on the Center Court, which means also that Djokovic's attempt to win the four consecutive Grand Slam tournaments for the second time failed.
"I still feel good and fresh. I'm ready for the match against Rafa," said the 25-year-old from Lower Austria. This season he had used Nadal's initial weakness on the beloved clay court in Barcelona and beat the 33-year-old Mallorcan there in the semifinals, it was the last of the twelve games between the two stars (8: 4 Nadal). In the 2018 final in Paris, Nadal had given his crown prince Thiem no chance of winning 6: 3, 6: 4, 6: 0 and thus enriched his flawless chronicle of success by another chapter - eleven finals under the Eiffel Tower, eleven victories. "There is nothing more difficult in tennis than winning against Nadal on Paris Center Court," said Eurosport expert Boris Becker.