Published 07:29 IST, November 17th 2019
Dominic Thiem enters ATP World Tour finals after defeating Alexander Zverev
Dominic Thiem powered into the finals of the ATP World Tour series after defeating the defending champion Alexander Zverev 7-5, 6-3 on Saturday evening
Dominic Thiem powered into the finals of the ATP World Tour finals after defeating defending champion Alexander Zverev 7-5, 6-3. Thiem will play Stefanos Tsitsipas in the finals on Sunday evening on November 17.
Biggest finals of his career yet
Thiem capped off a fantastic week where he defeated Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic to be the first to qualify from the round-robin format of the tournament. Thiem and Zverev were locked in the first set, and the winner was only decided in the tie-breaker. The 26-year-old Austrian was able to deal with Zverev's massive serves well and after the match said that he used the chance of the second serves in his game.
Thiem has had an impressive season, winning five ATP Titles - Indian Wells, Barcelona Open, Kitzbuhel Open, Beijing Open and Vienna Open. He is currently ranked fifth in the world and is hoping to pick the biggest title of his career on Sunday evening.
After the match, he said, "This is a big, big dream coming true for me. It is one of the best tournaments all year, one of the most prestigious tournaments all year and I am getting the chance to play the finals tomorrow. It is unreal to me and to beat the defending champions, a good friend and an unbelievable player is always a great achievement and I am very, very happy."
Looking ahead at the finals, he joked that it could be an 'all backhands' final and said, "There was a time when there were not many players with one-handed backhand and now me and also very young and amazing players like Stefanos or Denis Shapovalov play one-handed backhand so we are going to see it for the next ten-fifteen years. I think if you played well like we do there are a lot of advantages, especially indoors because of the slice, and options we have."
Updated 09:58 IST, November 17th 2019