In September, Dominic Thiem proved that he’s not a pretender to a Grand Slam throne. He spent years knocking on the door, dropping within the ultimate to Rafael Nadal on the French Open in 2018 and 2019, after which within the summit conflict to Novak Djokovic on the Australian Open final yr. It could have been the identical story on the US Open, when he misplaced the primary two units to Alexander Zverev within the ultimate, however then got here again to change into the primary male singles participant born within the Nineteen Nineties to win a Grand Slam.
It took him to the World No 3 spot, and made him one of many favourites because the tour shifted to 2021’s first main in Australia. But his second Slam must wait, as a tiring Thiem pale away in a 6-4, 6-4, 6-0 fourth spherical loss to World No 21 Grigor Dimitrov.
What was anticipated to be a gripping battle really turned out to be a tame affair that lasted a minute over the 2 hour mark – the third set was simply 21 minutes lengthy.
Thiem’s laboured motion
The 27-year-old Austrian is rated among the many fittest gamers on tour. But underneath the Melbourne solar he was wilting. His motion wasn’t as fluid as he has proven virtually each time he’s on court docket. Clearly, he hadn’t fairly bodily recovered from his draining third spherical match towards Nick Kyrgios.
Dimitrov, the Giant Slayer 🇧🇬@GrigorDimitrov knocks out 2020 finalist Dominic Thiem to achieve his 4th #AusOpen quarterfinal.#AO2021 pic.twitter.com/NgrRQJAB4B
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) February 14, 2021
That match on Friday was three hours and 21 minutes lengthy. While it wasn’t the longest match this Australian Open has seen, the truth that he needed to come again from two units right down to win in 5, and the power he spent on quelling Kyrgios’ firepower, had taken rather a lot away from Thiem bodily and mentally.
And it confirmed.
“Some little physical issues,” Thiem mentioned after his match. “I don’t want to find any excuses. But the thing also is that I’m not a machine. I mean, sometimes I would like to be, but there are really, really bad days. As soon as you’re not a hundred percent there on court on this level, then results like this come up and that’s exactly what happened today.”
In comparability, Dimitrov’s third spherical match towards Pablo Carreno Busta lasted simply 38 minutes for the reason that Spaniard retired resulting from harm firstly of the second set.
Unforced errors
Tired legs gave technique to drained photographs, and that led to an elevated unforced error rely – 41, versus simply 18 from Dimitrov’s racquet.
Despite the fatigue, remarkably, Thiem broke Dimitrov’s serve early within the first two units however simply couldn’t maintain on. His go-to tactic, of constructing the rallies last more, appeared doomed on the day as he simply didn’t have the power to grind it out.
“I’m also not a machine. I mean, sometimes I would like to be, but there are really, really bad days.”
No. 3 Thiem heads again to the drafting board after falling in straight units to Dimitrov.#AusOpen | #AO2021
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) February 14, 2021
Against Kyrgios, Thiem grew stronger when the rallies had been lengthy. But he couldn’t deal with the physicality towards Dimitrov. In rallies that lasted at the very least 9 photographs, Thiem gained 13 and Dimitrov gained 18 (most ended with a Thiem error).
Dimitrov’s consistency and endurance
In his on-court interview, Dimitrov acknowledged that Thiem was most likely not at his finest. But for his half he made positive he stayed regular within the match, regardless of dropping his serve early within the first two units.
He stayed affected person in rallies, not pulling the set off too quickly, however as a substitute performed proportion photographs that compelled return after return from his tiring opponent.
In the third set, he gained the primary 12 factors in a row – together with a double break of Thiem’s serve. Overall, he misplaced simply 5 factors within the third set.
