Dominic Thiem has long proven to have anything he wants in the tennis world. He showed it again to Nick Kyrgios, offering a tennis recital and patience that ended up knocking down the Australian wall. Because Kyrgios did not play alone, he was driven for much of the game with a euphoric crowd, more typical of the Davis Cup than the Australian Open. But it is Thiem who survived the screams and cheers out of time to reach the next round after three hours and 20 minutes 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, and 6-4.
Nick Kyrgios wanted to take advantage of the last day with the public at the Austalian Open before global confinement of five days for 13 infections. With his compatriots unleashed with each of his blows, his direct aces, his apparent impudence, and a meter away because, as Kyrgios wanted, it was played in the smallest of Melbourne Park. But the Australian is not only an extratenistic spectacle. He also has a hand, a crazy level, a hammer in the drive, and the service, maximum difficulties for his rivals when deciding where his next shot will go.
Thiem had already indicated days ago that the track was too fast to think through every shot, and Kyrgios’s style of play still robbed him of more time to establish his rhythm. The Australian achieved his service turns in just 56 seconds. And the stands celebrated with enthusiasm each winning shot of their player and even each mistake of their rival. Thus, he lacked that little bit to equalize the contest in the first two sets.
But the Austrian armed himself with patience, one of his main virtues. Thus he won his first Grand Slam, the US Open, against Alexander Zverev, after the German handcuffed him in the first two rounds. He tried to appease the Australian and his entire entourage. He continued there on the 3rd of the world, looking for a new opportunity despite everything.
And little by little he rebuilt his tennis by deconstructing his rival, as electric as the stands, but who began to pale in his serves. He lost the opportunity to break 1-0 at the start of the third heat and then it was the Austrian who destabilized his missiles. Break, 2-0 and disconnection of the Australian.
Because when it comes to thinking, handling long points, and holding on before taking the final blow, Thiem is superior, one of the best, almost a master, with the permission of Nadal, Federer, Djokovic. The Austrian became a wall, without seeking the limits, without failing. And as the ball bounced off his tennis, Kyrgios’s head was thrown off balance. I did not get fast points and the anger and the racket throws and screaming followed one another. Kyrgios gave up the third set and saw the match lean against him. So much tension that if in the first two sets he had achieved games of less than a minute in length, the first of the fourth set lasted more than eleven minutes. He shook off the pressure in that first game and activated the stands to infinity.
However, without making noise, impossible in that stand that never fell silent, Thiem finally imposed his rhythm. Time, pause, long points, effectiveness. He managed the pressure of the environment wonderfully and, step by step, he took the energy away from his rival, who no longer found enough touch to endure the rest of the match. It was the calmer and more patient Thiem who defeated the gale Kyrgios, a tremendous player, after three hours and 20 minutes, who could not celebrate the party with his team.
