US Open: Dominic Thiem moves into the semi-finals with a clear three-set success over Alex de Minaur
Dominic Thiem is in the semi-finals of the US Open for the first time in his career. The Austrian defeated Alex deMinau r in the round of the last eight with 6: 1, 6: 2 and 6: 4. ( You can read the game here in our live ticker. )
by Nikolaus Fink
last edit: Sep 10, 2020, 05:04 am
It has been around two years since Dominic Thiem was able to draw attention to himself on hard court for the first time in his career: At the US Open 2018, the Lichtenwörther was defeated by then world number one Rafael Nadal in the tie-break of the fifth set. 24 months later, Thiem has established himself as one of the best hard-court players in the world and is considered a big favorite for the Flushing Meadows title after Novak Djokovic's disqualification .
The task in Thiem's second US Open quarter-finals was, at least on paper, easier to read than it was two years ago: With the 28th world ranking. Alex de Minaur was waiting for a player against whom Thiem had only lost one set in the previous two matches and whose game basically suits the Lower Austrian.
Thiem dominates sentence one
Because the Australian primarily impresses with his physique and has far fewer weapons than Thiem. In particular, the serve is considered vulnerable for the 21-year-old - a fact that de Minaur should be undoing early on in his first Grand Slam quarter-finals. The Australian had to give up his first three service games and consequently lost the first set with 1: 6 - de Minaur himself was not helped by the interim rebreak to 1: 2 from his point of view.
Thiem dominated the game under a closed roof at will, repeatedly used the backhand slice and drove his opponent out of the field again and again with powerful forehand strokes. The Austrian made 13 unforced mistakes and only placed half of his first serves in the field, but Thiem was the much better player at Arthur Ashe Stadium - especially after he had fended off four breakballs at the score of 3: 1.
De Minaur awards 40-0 - the beginning of the end
That changed in round two, de Minaur no longer had any problems with his service games and was initially much closer to a break than Thiem. It was still the third in the world rankings who made the first break in the second section: Out of nowhere and after 0:40 deficit, Thiem took his counterpart to 3: 2.
That broke de Minaur's resistance in this set, the man from Sydney lost his service two games later and shortly afterwards was confronted with a 2-0 set deficit after just 77 minutes. Despite his only average performance up until then, Thiem had no problems with his 21-year-old opponent.
The class difference was also evident at the beginning of the third round. Thiem broke to 1-0 and seemed on the best way towards the semifinals. But de Minaur did not want to give up completely without a fight: The Australian equalized with a break to 3: 3 and then went 4: 3 in the front after 0:40 behind.
Thiem in the semifinals against Medvedev
Suddenly a game developed at a good level and eye level, in which Thiem put 4: 4 after great difficulties and then made the break to 5: 4. Thus, the 27-year-old served to win the match. The Austrian did this job with flying colors - after 2:04 hours the 6: 1, 6: 2 and 6: 4 success was certain.
"I had a great feeling from the very first moment. The first two sets look a lot easier on paper than they were. In the third round I lost my energy a bit. The game at 3-4 was very important. After that we both had played at a very good level, "said Thiem after the game.
In the semifinals, Thiem will meet Daniil Medvedev on Friday. The Russian also prevailed in his quarter-finals against Andrey Rublev in three sets and was able to clearly win the last encounter against his upcoming opponent in Montreal 2019 - but overall the Austrian is 2-1 ahead in head to head.