WHAT HAPPENED: Dominic Thiem used every bit of his Grand Slam experience to come back from the brink and defeat Alexander Zverev, 2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6, in the 2020 US Open men’s singles final. Playing in his fourth major final, the 27-year-old won his first Slam silverware with a comeback as methodical as his rise to this career-defining moment.
Both men served for the match in the fifth set, Zverev at 5-3 and Thiem at 6-5, but neither came close to ending it. What started as a Zverev rout was ultimately decided by the finest of margins, 8-6 in the breaker, with each set more competitive than the one preceding it. There were four breaks of serve in the final five games of the match, and 15 in total.
"It was tough to stay there and to still believe, but I did," Thiem said in his post-match press conference. "It's a Slam final...the belief was always there."
The No. 2 seed was the favorite in Arthur Ashe Stadium, a new proposition for him at this stage, but he quickly became a long-shot as Zverev raced to a 6-2, 5-1 lead in under an hour. The German was four games from the title, up a break at 2-1 in the third, when Thiem found traction with his biting ground game.
His comeback continued to pick up steam until late in the fifth, when Zverev made his move. But Thiem fought back from the brink a second time, breaking to stay alive and then fighting through cramps to will himself to the biggest win of his career. In the breaker, he won bruising rallies of 13 and 11 balls, and roped a forehand winner at 6-all to bring up his third and final match point.
The Austrian is the first player in the Open era to win from two sets down in a US Open final.
More than four hours earlier, the match started with considerably less tension. Zverev came out swinging freely, breezing to a double-break lead before closing out the opening set with an ace. The 6-foot-6 Zverev was firing on serve, as fast as 140 mph, and he dropped just three points on his racquet in an impressive start that included 16 first-set winners (he finished with 52).
It continued in set two, with lightning-quick holds in between struggling service games from Thiem. The German held a lead in seven straight return games (including the last three in the first set), and again went up by two breaks in the second.
A few double faults (including one clocked at 133 mph) crept into Zverev's game late in the set, and he lost a set point at 5-2 on a botched serve-and-volley attempt—a play he used sparingly, to great effect, early in the match. The Austrian took advantage to threaten on the return for the first time and got his first break of the match on his first break point, helping him close from 5-1 to 5-4.
Another double fault, one of 15 in the match, opened Zverev's second attempt at serving out the set. But he brushed it aside by winning a pivotal, 13-ball rally at 15-all before blasting his way to a two-set lead.
Thiem's charge faded early in set three, as he again dropped serve early for 2-1. But the No. 2 seed broke straight back, then asserted himself with a love hold.
"From that moment when I broke him back, the belief got stronger and stronger," Thiem said. "But the thing is that the belief in myself is not enough because Sascha, I'm sure he believed himself as well, 100 percent."
After Zverev easily made it 3-all, they traded three nervy holds, each going through deuce. Thiem was a millimeter from facing a break point at 4-all, but a successful challenge helped him edge in front.
Previously four games away from glory, Zverev was suddenly serving to stay in the set. Thiem buckled down in 12- and 6-ball rallies, winning four points in a row to take the set.
With the fifth seed no longer in fifth gear, the Austrian was in the driver’s seat. Now cruising on serve, Thiem was dragging his opponent into rallies and through deuce on the return. The relentless prodding yielded a late break in another extended game, and Thiem blitzed through to a fifth set.
The deciding stanza saw six breaks. There was a clear winner in each of the first four sets, but the fifth was either man's to take. In the end, it was Thiem's time. When a Zverev backhand drifted wide on match point No. 3, Thiem collapsed onto the court in victory.
"It was such a big relief," he said. "Obviously it was huge pressure in the match, huge emotions. Physically it was super tough. Then also it was not an easy four weeks in general. It was a lot coming through the mind, coming through the body."
WHAT IT MEANS: We’ve known for a week that the 2020 US Open would end with a new men’s Grand Slam champion. In Thiem, that new champion is the man who's been knocking on the door for the last three years.
Already the first Austrian US Open finalist, Thiem is now the first-ever Austrian champ here. He wins a second Grand Slam for his country, after Thomas Muster won Roland Garros in 1995.
Thiem narrowly avoided becoming just the third man to go 0-4 in his first four Grand Slam finals. Instead of joining eventual major-winners Andy Murray and Ivan Lendl in that club, he matches Andre Agassi and Goran Ivanisevic in getting his first title on his fourth try.
"When I made that match point, when he missed that backhand, it was such a big relief," said Thiem. "This is a major title. It's just the highest thing that you can achieve in tennis."
In addition to his two-set comeback, and his Grand Slam title, Thiem accomplished another first in this victory. On the 50th anniversary of the tiebreak at the US Open, he won the first-ever fifth-set tiebreak in a US Open championship match.
MATCH POINT: Thiem has continued his incremental progression through his four major finals. His results: three-set loss (Rafael Nadal, 2018 French Open), four-set loss (Rafael Nadal, 2019 French Open), five-set loss (Novak Djokovic, 2020 Australian Open)… five-set win.
WATCH: Highlights from the 2020 US Open men's singles final
