A lot has changed in 2020. But the more things change, at least one thing stays the same: Dominic Thiem wins on clay.
Thiem triumphed in the first leg of the Adria Tour on Sunday, getting the best Filip Krajinovic in the final at Novak Djokovic’s tennis center in Belgrade. The 26-year-old Austrian came through his round-robin group undefeated and then beat Krajinovic 4-3(2), 2-4, 4-2.
The inaugural event, put on by Djokovic, used the Fast Four scoring system and welcomed more than 4,000 fans–who were certainly not paying any mind to the thought of social distancing. Eight players participated and were placed in two different round-robin groups of four. Djokovic was a heavy favorite in his group but got upset by Krajinovic on Saturday night. That opened the door for Thiem, who took care of business in a competitive title match.
“I’m happy with the level I played this week,” the world No. 3 commented. “I’ve been fully in practice for quite a while; I played seven matches in Austria. But I have to say it’s something very different with the big crowd. You’re a little bit tight and you want to play better because you’re not just playing for yourself. You also want to give the fans a good show. So I’m super happy that I won all of my matches.
“It’s always nice to win a trophy, of course, but that was not the main cause for me to come here. It’s great that it ended up like that, but first of all I had a really great time here. I had an amazing weekend. It was for a good cause, too, so it couldn’t be better. So, a big thank you to Novak and his team, his family, for organizing this great even and making the time special for us here.”
Djokovic would agree that the weekend was not primarily about winning. The top-ranked Serb, who defeated Alexander Zverev in three sets on Sunday but needed a straight-set victory in order to advance, was emotional following the well-received event in his hometown.
“I am not crying because I got knocked out of the tournament, I am just overwhelmed by emotion because this reminds me of my childhood,” he explained. “It’s been an emotional few days and I want to thank everyone who made this possible…. I love you all and thank you so much for turning up.”
Adria Tour action will resume next weekend in Croatia and there will likely be two more stops thereafter.
nice one, Thiem
Thiem played really well, and most of the other pros looked very sharp. Surprised by all the fans in the stands, elbow to elbow!!