You’ll have to excuse Dominic Thiem if he’s grown tired of the comparisons, the ones that have followed him since, as a 21-year-old clay-bred wunderkind, he became the youngest member of the year-end Top 20.
Thiem won his first three ATP titles that year, 2015, one of the tour’s “#NextGen” poster boys made good. The easy-target parallel was his countryman Thomas Muster, who—long before Rafa Nadal—was known as The King of Clay. Muster won the Roland Garros title in 1995, and the following year rose to No. 1, the first man from his country to do so. Muster’s exploits meant that every Austrian player who came after him would walk in his shadow.
In truth, Thiem, who spent his formative years under Vienna-based coach Günter Bresnik’s tutelage, was more of a Stefan Koubek and Jurgen Melzer guy. But the Muster comparisons were inevitable.
As Thiem’s brick-wall consistency (and his majestic one-handed backhand) brought more results and notoriety, he was often penciled in among the tournament favorites, the go-to fourth option after the Big Three of Nadal, Roger Federer, and Novak Djokovic. He would reach back-to-back finals at Roland Garros in 2018-19, toting Mr. Muster astride his shoulders, coming up short against Nadal on both occasions. His first Masters 1000 crown came in the Southern California desert in 2019, where he outmaneuvered Federer in the final. Earlier this year, he played his way into the title match at the Australian Open, falling to Djokovic.
If you were on-hand to witness his five-set epic against Nadal in the 2018 US Open quarterfinals, a four-hour-and-49-minute marathon that stretched until 2:04 a.m., you know that it stands among the highest-quality matches ever played in the borough of Queens, New York. Though Thiem came out on the losing end, his stunning 6-0 opening-set bagel of the Spaniard was a virtual clinic on how to neutralize an elite opponent.
All along, the comparisons have followed.
“In 1995, Thomas Muster was here as the first Austrian in the finals. Is he a role model for you, having won Paris?”
“There are three players who have won lots of Grand Slams. There are also a group of younger players, including yourself, that have been tipped to win Grand Slams in future. So what will it take for one of the young players to break through and finally win a Grand Slam?”
And so on. You get the idea.
With Federer and Nadal on the sidelines, and with Djokovic’s shock default in the Round of 16 at the 2020 US Open, Thiem finds himself fielding questions about what many see as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“Novak, Rafa, Roger—they’ve been a roadblock for you in Slams, and your whole generation. It must feel different with none of those guys here now.”
After his straight-sets dismissal of Aussie Alex de Minaur on Wednesday, Thiem had had enough.
“There is no Roger, Rafa, Novak, but there is Daniil, Sascha, and Pablo now. There are three other amazing players,” the 27-year-old shot back during his on-court interview, a shout-out to himself and his fellow semifinalists, Medvedev, Zverev, and Carreno Busta, respectively. “Every single one of us deserves this first major title. Everybody will give it all. Once we step on the court, those other three are forgotten anyway.”
Medvedev, his semifinal opponent, is prepping for a tough battle.
“Very aggressive, tries to take everything with his forehand, goes for it, doesn’t ask questions,” the 2019 US Open finalist said of Thiem, against whom he’s 1-2. “Dominic is a tough opponent to play.”
When they meet in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday, the Big Three will be the furthest things from their minds. They’ll be dialed in on themselves, and the player on the other side of the net.
“My focus or my concentration, it’s the same,” said Thiem. “It doesn't matter if I play one of the Big Three members or if I play somebody else. What happened, happened. None of the other players has any or had any influence on that. We just need to focus on ourselves. Of course, it’s a little bit of a bigger chance for all of us to win a first Slam, but things haven’t changed that much, at least for myself.”
Yes, we’ll have a first-time major titlist at the 2020 US Open, the first here since Marin Cilic went the distance in 2014. Thiem hopes it will be him hoisting the trophy on Sunday; hopes he’ll forever put those comparisons to rest, a three-time runner-up at the majors breaking through at last.
