Legendary finals in Vienna: 2019 - Dominic Thiem creates the home double
The Erste Bank Open 2021 starts next Monday in the Wiener Stadthalle. We look back on a couple of finals that have made an impression on tennis fans. Like Dominic Thiem's against Diego Schwartzman two years ago.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Oct 21, 2021, 09:41 pm
In his brilliant career, Thomas Muster won the tournament in Kitzbühel, three finals in Vienna remained unrewarded. Horst Skoff defeated Muster in the town hall in 1988, but always got nothing at the foot of the Kitzbüheler Horn. Jürgen Melzer finally even won two championships in the capital, in Tyrol it was always less smooth in the individual. Until 2019, the Austrian career double seemed almost impossible. And then Dominic Thiem came.
The triumph at the Generali Open in summer gave Thiem the certainty that he could withstand the pressure of the favorite on home soil. The opponents in the summer classic were outsiders per se according to their position in the ATP world rankings, Thiem mastered all tasks, as the last Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the final.
Fear opponents Tsonga and Verdasco
The situation in Vienna is completely different. Thiem started right away against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, to whom he was defeated on the spot a few years earlier in a rousing match. The Austrian mastered the opening hurdle, in lap two Fernando Verdasco was the next feared opponent. Verdasco had inflicted a serious defeat on Thiem earlier in the year in Rome, in Vienna the local hero finally took revenge after losing the first set.
The quarter-finals against favorite opponent Pablo Carreno Busta were shorter than expected, the Spaniard had to give up in the first set. The next hurdle was Matteo Berrettini, against the Italian the memory of the defeat in Shanghai was still fresh. Dominic Thiem lost the first round again, and with his comeback he shook the town hall again.
Schwartzman beats Thiem in Buenos Aires
The fact that it went against Diego Schwartzman in the final was a nice punchline: At the home tournament in Buenos Aires, Thiem had lost a very winnable match against his buddy, but Schwartzman had no intention of returning the favor. Thiem started nervously, Schwartzman offensively, the first set went 6: 3 to the Argentine. As against Berretini and Verdasco, Thiem made the comeback and was allowed to sink to the floor of the center court after the 6: 4 and 6: 3.