Dominic Thiem has now twice done Alexander Zverev a favor by eliminating Rafael Nadal from clay-court Masters 1000 events that the German has eventually won. But the German was in no mood to return any favors to his good friend on Sunday.
Zverev won his third careers Masters title by beating Thiem 6-4, 6-4 in the final of the Mutua Madrid Open, completing a perfect week in which he did not lose a set or even drop serve a single time. The 21-year-old, previously a champion in Rome and Montreal (both in 2017), triumphed after one hour and 18 minutes.
Thiem, who stunned Nadal in the quarterfinals and also upset the Spaniard last year in Rome, could not replicate the form he had showcased on Friday and Saturday (first against Nadal and then at Kevin Anderson’s expense). The seventh-ranked Austrian donated serve twice and failed to generate any break points of his own. In fact, Zverev faced just one break point in the entire tournament.
Highlights:
“All in all, I’m just really happy with how I played, that I could win my third Masters,” said Zverev, also a recent runner-up in Miami. “So far it’s been pretty good for me on clay this year. Hopefully I can continue this kind of streak in Rome. Obviously the altitude fits me a little bit with my serve, with how I play, with me playing a little bit more aggressive than others. That definitely fits me.
“In general, the last 10 days have been pretty good–winning two titles in this time; one in Germany and this one here is massive. It’s been unbelievable. I’m not going to lie. I’m just going to do everything I can to continue this kind of streak.”
“It was, I think, an average match from both of us,” Thiem assessed. “I just couldn’t maintain my level from the match against Rafa and the match yesterday against Anderson. That was the problem today…. I didn’t have great results in the last weeks in Monte-Carlo and Barcelona, but here I got my self-confidence full back, even though I lost today. It was still a good week. I just played bad today; that’s it. There is no reason to be worried.”
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nice one, AZ
Thiem’s ROS was bad, especially on the BH. OTOH, Zverev was serving very well. If he can serve like that and stay aggressive he will have his chances to win in Rome and even at RG. The flat cross court BH is a monster when it’s on.
You miss out Wimbledon, when his big serve and flatter shots work even better on grass! Also, it’s physically less demanding to win on grass so I see Sasha having better chances at Wimbledon than at RG. At RG he would have to grind and I doubt he could grind for seven BO5 matches in a row.
Regarding ROS, I said it before, the younger guys are relatively poor in their ROS, I see no one as good in the ROS as the big four, or even Ferrer or Simon. It’s a problem with the youngsters, they concentrate more on their serve and hard hitting but forget to pick up skills in the ROS.
Both Thiem and Sasha aren’t great returners of serves, Sasha hardly broke Thiem’s serves, it’s more Thiem’s own undoing!