Austria’s Dominic Thiem finally claimed his first Grand Slam title with a stunning comeback to beat Germany’s Alexander Zverev 2-6 4-6 6-4 6-3 7-6(6) in the U.S. Open final on Sunday.
The 27-year-old world number three, beaten in his first three Grand Slam finals, started as the favorite in this brutal and nerve-jangling match.
But he appeared to have blown his golden chance as he fell two sets behind.
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Thiem, who had dropped only one set en route to the final, looked stifled by nerves early on.
But he gradually broke the shackles to hit back from a break down to take the third set.
A limping Thiem trailed 5-3 in a tense decider but Zverev could not close it out and the Austrian summoned some incredible baseline winners to take it into a tie-break.
A gut-wrenching climax saw Thiem squander two match-points from 6-4 with forehand errors.
But he would not be denied, and he set up a third match-point with a passing shot before Zverev fired wide after four hours and two minutes.
“I wish there were two winners today. We both deserved it,” Thiem said on court after a tearful speech from his crestfallen 23-year-old opponent.
He was the second Austrian to win a Grand Slam title after Thomas Muster’s 1995 French Open title.