Breaking into first US Open semifinal, the future is now for Thiem

On Wednesday, Dominic Thiem became the first Austrian to reach the semifinals of the US Open. It took the No. 2 seed two hours and four minutes to subdue scrappy Australian Alex de Minaur, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4, in a match that was heavily in Thiem’s control -- until it almost wasn’t.

Deep into the third set, Thiem was the boss, the No. 21 seed de Minaur little more than a low-level employee. In the third set, de Minaur served at 1-3, on his way to being swiftly terminated.

Then came time for a tenacious labor revolt, very much in the spirit of one of de Minaur’s mentors, fellow Aussie and former world No. 1, Lleyton Hewitt. De Minaur held, broke Thiem to level the set, fought back from love-40 to take a 4-3 lead, and even went ahead 15-30 on the Austrian’s serve, two points away from going up 5-3. Said de Minaur, “I just lifted my intensity a bit more. I started to go for it a bit more.”

A let-cord winner evened the game. Thiem held for 4-all and then flexed the muscles of management. Aided by his signature backhand, including one that seemed to bend de Minaur’s racquet as he reached for a volley, Thiem broke at 15 and served out the match at love.

If at the end it was a teaser of what kind of player the 21-year-old de Minaur might eventually become, in the bigger picture, it was a display of the first-rate contender Thiem already is. As had been the case in the previous round, when he’d beaten the promising Canadian, 20-year-old Felix Auger-Aliassime, Thiem had given the future a harsh glance into the realities of high-level pro tennis.

Time and time again, Thiem took command of rallies with powerful, deep groundstrokes. Peppered in were angled drives, slice backhands, intermittent but effective treks to the net (where Thiem won 12 of 16 points) and well-placed serves that usually put Boss Thiem in position to send de Minaur on an errand to fetch the coffee. “One of the things with Dominic is obviously we all know the strength he's got,” said de Minaur,“the power he's got. But second night match, very sort of heavy conditions, it's tough to get a ball past him.”

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Combine de Minaur’s competitive willpower with the arsenal of his compatriot Nick Kyrgios and you might well have an Aussie who could be the next Rod Laver. It’s an impressive sight to see de Minaur throw himself into his shots, but at this stage, they remain largely flat counterpunches, far from the texture of the contemporary ball shaped by the likes of Thiem. Said de Minaur, “there's a big thing that you can kind of tell, and that's the six years' difference [in age]. I think that's one of the biggest things you can just tell. Not just experience, but also physique, fitness. He's grown into his body. Now I've got to match that.”

While in the wake of this effort – his first run to a Grand Slam quarterfinal – de Minaur will continue to ponder both short-term efforts and long-term ambitions, for Thiem, the future is very much now. Three times he has reached Grand Slam singles finals, losing in ’18 and ’19 to Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros and earlier this year, to Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open. Said Thiem, “These are great memories, the Slams I went deep, even though I lost three finals. If I think back at these tournaments, they were great to me. I lost finals against all-time greats, especially last year Paris and this year Australia. I think they were great matches. I love to look back at them and of course look back at them now and check out what I can improve. I hope these experiences help me also in this US Open.”

Well aware of the current opportunity this year’s US Open poses for him, Thiem will first have to vie with ’19 US Open finalist, Daniil Medvedev.

Said Thiem, “I would say that he comes very close to the big three players in terms that he can play his level, his top level, for doesn't matter how long, I mean, four, five, six hours. That's going to be really, really difficult.”

Though Thiem leads the rivalry 2-1, Medvedev won their most recent match, a 6-3, 6-1 effort in the quarterfinals of Toronto in the summer of 2019. But such data is far less meaningful in the face of the highly constricted world each of us now occupies. “It's not easy mentally to keep all the time the 100 percent energy and everything,” said Thiem. “To everything else I got used to, to all the circumstances, to all the situation. I think it's in general great that we are able to play this tournament. But there are some situations in every match basically where it would be nice to have the crowd just to keep the energy up, just to celebrate great points, that it doesn't feel that bad if you going through a tough period in that certain match. That all kind of is gone when there are no fans in the stadium. That was not easy to get used to.”

As the fan-free 2020 US Open nears its end, credit the players for adjusting – and Thiem for craving the deep connection that comes with applause.