ALEXANDER ZVEREV OUTCLASSED an error-strewn Dominic Thiem to continue his sublime run on clay with a comprehensive 6-4 6-4 win in Sunday’s Madrid Open final.
Just one week on from lifting the BWM Open, second seed Zverev made it nine straight wins on the dirt to clinch a third career Masters 1000 title – the fifth active player to achieve such a haul.
Thiem had beaten ‘King of Clay’ Rafael Nadal in Friday’s quarter-final, but the man seen by many as the Spaniard’s greatest threat at the French Open was punished for a disjointed display that yielded 21 unforced errors.
Zverev, who earned a first win over Thiem on clay, was a deserving victor and will now turn his attention to Rome and the Internazionali d’Italia.
Thiem was punished for a sloppy first game that ended with the Austrian double-faulting to gift Zverev the lead.
Zverev mixed up his game and offered few sniffs until he had to claw back from 0-30 down when serving for the set, Thiem going long with a forehand to surrender the opener.
A similar pattern followed in the second set with Thiem going wide off a straight-forward looking shot to gift Zverev a break point that was converted when a punishing forehand could only be returned into the net.
Thiem was in trouble again when 15-40 down in game four, but to his credit he fought back to stay in the match with a fierce forehand winner.
But the pattern of the match did not alter and a flawless Zverev coasted through the remaining service games to celebrate a huge win in the build up to Roland Garros.
- Omni
Very poor performance from thiem today but that takes nothing away from how good zverev was and is, they’re the only two players on the whole men’s tour I’d give half a chance too against nadal in Paris this year.