After the German struggled to make the quarter-finals, it was no surprise to see Dominic Thiem destroy second seed Alexander Zverev 6-4 6-2 6-1, exposing the true level of the German in Grand Slams.
The match started with both men holding serve comfortably until 3-3 in the first set, when the Austrian made the first move creating the first break point of the match with controlled aggressive play. He would then take it with a beautiful backhand crosscourt winner.
Two comfortable holds followed for the #7 seed as he went on to take the first set 6-4, sealing it with his second ace and stamping his authority on the match. A set where Thiem hit ten winners to eight unforced errors, with his opponent hitting just the six winners to more than double the unforced errors at 13. The heavy conditions of the court clearly affected the 21-year-old’s ability to hit through the court.
In the second set, fatigue noticeably kicked in for Zverev as more and more unforced errors kicked into the German’s game. There’s no doubt playing three back-to-back five setters coming into this was the cause, even though he himself said only a few days ago he wasn’t concerned with being fatigued for this quarter-final matchup. He was also grabbing at his hamstring a bunch, but it’s impossible to know how much that affected him.
The #2 seed gifted the first break of the second set to his older competitor and, while he immediately had a break back point in the next game, the Austrian reeled off three stunning points back to back to hold serve. The unforced errors only grew from the German as more unforced errors gave the Austrian a double break and a 4-1 lead before receiving medical treatment and getting his left leg heavily taped.
With the Austrian serving with astonishing numbers of 68% first serves in, 80% won on his first serve and 71% on his second in the set he then closed out the set to love 6-2. A very one-sided set mostly due to Zverev hitting even less winners than the first set at four with triple the unforced errors.
Another beautiful backhand down the line passing shot winner from Thiem gained the break in the very first game of the third set and that was the match. Things continued like the second set with Zverev struggling to win games. It wasn’t long before one break became two and then the match with another backhand winner for a 6-1 finish and his third semi-final in a row. The overall stats highlight just how one sided the match was with Thiem far ahead in every important category.
Whilst it was sweet revenge for the Austrian after losing to the German just a few weeks ago in the Madrid final, next he will have to focus on a semi-final matchup against Marco Cecchinato, the unseeded sensation who’s beaten Pablo Carreno Busta, David Goffin, and Novak Djokovic this event. The Italian has and Thiem are unofficially at 0-0 in the H2H but they’ve played a Challenger and Futures match against one another years ago, with it being one win a piece. With that in mind who knows what the result will be on Friday but it should be a treat, especially with the 24-year-old being in prime form coming off a title win just nine days ago in Lyon, and the 25-year-old the biggest three wins of his career all back-to-back.
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