Published 11:18 IST, October 28th 2019
Dominic Thiem wins Erste Bank Open to claim fifth title of the season
Dominic Thiem won his fifth ATP tour title on Sunday evening after defeating Diego Schwartzman 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in a match lasting two hours and 25 minutes
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Dominic Thiem defeated Argentine Diego Schwartzman 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 to win the Erste Bank Open in Vienna, Austria. This was Thiem's first victory in Austria and his fifth title this year.
Fights back from being a set down
Thiem was a set down, but he did not lose his focus and was committed to winning the match in front of his home crowd. He picked his game in the second set of the match and saved himself from falling back again in the second set after he delivered an ace to win the game. He then broke Schwartzman to level the second set at 4-4 and went on to level the match. The momentum and the crowd, firmly behind his back, he went into the third set lot composed and broke Schwartzmann in the first game itself to continue the run to the trophy.
On receiving his trophy, world number 5 said, "Three times this week, I came from one set down. To share the court and final with a guy who became a very close friend in all these years is very nice in one way. To beat him in such an important match is hard in the other way. It has been a dream week." Acknowledging the crowd support, he said, "I think he did really well and he didn’t miss anything. I really have trouble to play against him, because it doesn’t matter what I do. If I play fast or if I play slow, he always has an answer to everything… I was fighting and, of course, I had this huge advantage with the home crowd. I used it well at the end.”
Schwartzman said, "I felt very good on court. The support of the people was crazy. It was really nice and real for me. In another place, really far from home, I felt really nice. After the first set, he played so aggressive. He was better than me and that is why he won the title.”
Thiem's previous four title wins came at Indian Wells, Barcelona, Kitzbuhel, Beijing and has broken away from a five way tie to the highest number of Tour wins this season.
Updated 14:07 IST, October 28th 2019