Wimbledon delivers a Dominic Thiem-Stefanos Tsitsipas first-round classic
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WIMBLEDON, England — The most stomach-churning match of Wimbledon’s first round sneaked up on people, understandably, initially lulling spectators into a sort of absent-minded dismissiveness. It started Tuesday before being halted by rain, and when it resumed Wednesday afternoon it was nestled among 87 matches listed on the program when the day began.
It’s a good thing rankings aren’t listed before names on the schedule, too, or it might have been overlooked. It makes sense for fifth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas to have drawn the player ranked 91st in the world as his first-round opponent. What made things a bit trickier is that person was Dominic Thiem.
By the time the fourth set rolled around, there was hardly a seat available on Court No. 2.
Thiem and Tsitsipas finished their 10th career meeting with Tsitsipas as the victor and set to face Andy Murray in the second round Thursday. The win left their head-to-head record at 5-5. The match was a 3-hour 36-minute knife fight that left Tsitsipas feeling “empty” and not quite understanding why. He won, 3-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-2, 6-7 (7-5), 7-6 (10-8), and sounded absolutely spent after.
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Thiem, meanwhile, projected emotion that athletes rarely allow outsiders to witness unless it is accompanied by big, heaving, uncontrollable tears directly after a loss. He sounded sad. Not disappointed or self-pitying but resigned and gently sad. Even as his words were meant to be uplifting.
“Yeah, obviously it was a great encounter,” he said slowly, in a low tone, “and to me, I’m leaving with heads up. Kind of showed me that I’m still there. The quality was very, very good. The fighting spirit was really, really good. Yeah, this match showed me a lot of good things that I’m still here. Still able to compete with the big boys of the game.”
The 29-year-old explained after that, yes, he was in dire need of that reminder less than three years after capturing his Grand Slam title at the 2020 U.S. Open against Alexander Zverev.
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That match was a mountain, played in the empty stands at New York’s Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in the thick of the pandemic and in the wake of Novak Djokovic’s controversial expulsion earlier in the tournament because he accidentally hit a lineswoman in the throat with a ball. It lasted an interminable five sets and was ugly and tense for every second, with both players seeking their first Grand Slam title.
At the time, Zverev, Tsitsipas and Thiem, who already had made it to three major finals and lost, were betting favorites to lead the next generation of greats in men’s tennis. The burden fell to Thiem.
He has lived the years since in the proverbial wilderness, logging six first-round exits in seven Grand Slam appearances. A wrist injury in 2021 robbed him of his ability to generate power on his groundstrokes for a time, and after posting win-loss records of 54-20 in 2018, 49-19 in 2019 and 25-9 in 2020, he went 9-9 in 2021, 18-16 in 2022 and 7-14 thus far in 2023.
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Thiem hasn’t been able to pinpoint the source of his struggles. But after reaching the thing he spent 15 years of his life trying to reach, he “fell into a hole,” he once said, a recognizable feeling for anyone but perhaps especially for those whose milestones in life came mid-pandemic and not at all as they imagined.
Finally healthy, Thiem gathered himself and has worked his way back from No. 352 last year to inside the top 100. This meeting with Tsitsipas seemed to open a time portal back to 2019.
Tsitsipas and Thiem, as Tsitsipas said on court afterward, bring out the best in each other. Both wielding beautiful one-handed backhands and deft skill at net, they played tripwire tennis until the super tiebreaker (to 10 points instead of seven) in the fifth set, at which point the bells in a nearby church began an ominous cascading chime as both men stepped to the baseline to settle things.
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Thiem had been living and dying with every point, shooting fist bumps back to his box after every winner, while Tsitsipas remained unusually steely throughout the match, his jaw clenched with focus.
They played the super tiebreaker to 7-7, at which moment Thiem unloaded a serve that clipped the edge of the line so precisely a cloud of white dust puffed into the air. But he netted a driving forehand and lost the point. A backhand error gave Tsitsipas a 9-7 lead, after which Thiem took the time to gulp a few calming breaths at the baseline before placing a venomous forehand out of Tsitsipas’s reach. With Tsitsipas facing another match point at 9-8, Thiem stuck a ball on the baseline, but Tsitsipas recovered, delivering a passing shot to win the match.
Afterward, Tsitsipas hung his head and stared straight at the ground upon returning to his chair while Thiem went about business as usual, packing up and tossing his spare shirts into the crowd.
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“I fought hard today. I won the match. I don’t think I felt this empty after a win in a very long time,” Tsitsipas said, with empty meaning devoid of emotion. “ … I don’t know if that makes any sense of what I’m trying to say. That’s just a feeling that I get after a long, difficult match against Dominic, who I find difficult as an opponent.”
Thiem, after spending years trying to make sense of his emotions and his game, having been to the mountaintop of a Grand Slam final and back down again, was able to locate his feelings. He seemed sad, yes. But he also felt a bit like his old self, and sometimes that’s enough to keep going.
“Everything — you know, not only the tennis but how I was feeling on the court in general — was just how it should be, and that what makes me happy also looking to the next weeks. Also, obviously the last weeks since Paris were tough, not good at all tennis-wise,” Thiem said. “So here I am, losing 6-7 in the fifth, playing a very good match, fighting unbelievable. It shows me that I’m here, that I’m able to do very good things still.”
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Source: The Washington Post
