‘Favourite match — against Djokovic; biggest rival — Zverev’ – Thiem reflects on his career
The Austrian opens up on his round-robin win over Novak Djokovic at 2019 ATP Finals and ‘growing up’ with Alexander Zverev
Chryslene Caillaud / Panoramic
Dominic Thiem recently spoke vividly about his tennis career, picking the win against Novak Djokovic at the 2019 ATP Finals as his favourite and declaring Alexander Zverev his biggest rival.
In October 2024, Thiem drew curtains on his professional journey after amassing 17 singles titles, including the 2020 US Open, and peaked at world No 3 in the ATP rankings.
On Wednesday (December 4), the Austrian sat with the ATP Tour to reflect on his run and answered a few questions about his choices. In one of the responses, he picked his comeback effort against Serbia’s Djokovic in the group stage of the season-ending championship in 2019 as one cherished encounter.
“The 2019 ATP Finals group stage match against Novak Djokovic,” Thiem said. “Game-wise and playing-wise, it was the best match I’ve ever played.”
The former world No 3 defeated the Serbian 6-7 (5), 6-3, 7-6 (5) in that meeting.
Further, Thiem chose Germany’s Zverev as his greatest opponent:
“I had many matches against great players but with Sascha was very special because we came up on the same time on tour. We grew up together, I think also the ranking rose very similar and we played on the biggest stages. So I would say it’s him.”
Thiem earned his solitary Grand Slam title by defeating Zverev in the 2020 US Open final, famously overcoming a two-set deficit to trump the German 2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (6) in New York. He clashed with the world No 2 12 times on the tour, claiming eight victories.
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