Second seed Dominic Thiem overcame an ankle injury to defeat third seed Daniil Medvedev in the semifinals of men’s singles competition in the ongoing US Open at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York.
Even though the match was an exciting affair, Thiem eventually won on straight sets to book his first final berth at the Flushing Meadows. The 27-year-old took the match 6-2, 7-6(7), 7-6(5) in three hours.
Thiem will now face world number four Alexander Zverev in this year’s US Open final. Zverev defeated Pablo Carreno Busta in a grinding five-set encounter.
“After the first set, it could easily have been two-sets-to-one down,” Thiem said after the match as per the official tournament website. “I played my best tennis at the ends of the sets and both tiebreaks were amazing. Tiebreaks are really mentally a tough thing.”
“I don’t like them at all, to be honest,” he added.
Zverev made it to his first Grand Slam final, dismissing Busta 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 in three and a half hours to advance to the championship round of the tournament.
“Even though I was down two sets to love, I stayed in it,” Zverev said of his mental toughness after the match. “I gave myself the best chance I could. I think a lot of players would have gone away. Today I dug deep, dug very deep. At the end of the day, I’m sitting here as the winner of that match, which could have been very different.”
Meanwhile, in the women’s singles competition, Naomi Osaka will take on Victoria Azarenka in the final on Saturday after both the players overcame their last-four challenge on Thursday.
Former world number one Victoria Azarenka on Thursday rallied to beat 23 times Grand Slam champion Serena Williams 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 after one hour and 55 minutes to reach her third Grand Slam final.
In the other semi-final, 2018 US Open champion Osaka edged past number 28 seed Jennifer Brady in a three-set thriller. The world number 8 won 7-6(1), 3-6, 6-3.