They say that revenge is a dish that is served cold. A year after losing in the final of the 2019 ATP Finals against Stefanos Tsitsipas, Dominic Thiem took his revenge and beat the Greek in the first singles match of the 2020 edition. A victory of merit and faith, because the Austrian played with discomfort in his right knee and yet he was able to prevent the same thing from happening to him as in that match in which he went ahead and ended up defeated. This time the victory was his for 7-6 (5), 4-6 and 6-3 in two hours and 17 minutes. Nobody has won as many games this year as him (18) in the big tournaments (Australia, US Open, Roland Garros and the Finals). It is his fifth appearance, in a row, in the event that brings together the eight best available tennis players in the ranking. And it already looks very curdled. On Tuesday he will face the winner of the duel between Nadal and Rublev in the London 2020 Group.
The 80% success rate that Tsitsipas had with first serves in the first set did not help him to win it because Thiem made better use of his to win 91% of the points (21/23), while his rival stayed at 77%. That was the small detail that tipped the balance in favor of Dom, who had three break options, did not take advantage of them and had black in the tiebreaker with a 1-4 start, although he came back to get ahead. He seemed wiser and more confident, but his body showed discomfort (right knee) and the Hellene did grab his first break opportunities and took the lead early in the second heat. He did not yield with good services and high percentages in a key section on hard court and indoors.
The sensations and the tennis favored Tsitsipas against a touched opponent who went to the locker room to take a break and think for a few seconds. However, the champion caught when things were going better for him, lost his turn the first time and found himself with a 3-0 against that surely he did not expect. Thiem gambled on each shot to save effort and Stefanos sought the opposite, lengthen exchanges and make his opponent run. He roared after each failure and in a long fifth game, the winner of the last US Open saved the furniture and celebrated with a couple of “Let's go!” in Spanish, the language of his coach, the Chilean Nicolás Massú. For him, it was already about doing a resistance exercise and he carried it out with flying colors.
Results of the ATP Finals.