DOMINIC Thiem is through to his third Grand Slam final after holding off an impressive Alexander Zverev in four sets. The Austrian fifth seed dropped the first set after a disappointing serving display, but worked hard to turn it around and really match his German seventh seed opponent in the area. By the end of the match he was serving strongly, but more importantly standing up in tiebreakers, claiming the victory, 3-6 6-4 7-6 7-6. Thiem now has the biggest challenge of all – trying to replicate his ATP Finals win over Novak Djokovic who awaits him in the Australian Open final.

The first set opened in surprise fashion with both consistent servers broken in their opening games, as Thiem hit a shocking four unforced errors in his service game, before working hard to break immediately back. While neither player looked overly clean in the first set, it was Zverev who took full advantage in the seventh game, breaking his opponent, before holding to love and breaking him a third time to secure a 6-3 first set. Zverev recorded a 90 per cent efficiency – only two faults – to Thiem’s uncharacteristically low 59 per cent, winning just 14 points on serve in a set he would no doubt rather like to forget, hitting 13 unforced errors to six, with only five winners. The German looked strong though after that early break against, winning 48 per cent of his receiving points and keeping his unforced errors to a low six.

The second set was more positive for Thiem who broke a four-game streak following the German winning his opening serve to love. The next service game though, the German hit two unforced errors as Thiem broke and held his own serve to lead 3-1. In the sixth game the seventh seed broke back, but the slight momentum shift did not last long as Thiem immediately broke back and then held serve to love. He survived a break point in the tenth game, then produced a winner on the final point to secure it 6-4 to level the match at a set-all. In the stats, Thiem regained control with a 75 per cent first serve points percentage, and hitting nine winners to only five unforced errors. Zverev broke even with eight of each, but could only manage the one break and being broken twice cost him.

If the first two sets were close, then the next two were match-defining. Thiem is known as the best deciding set player on Tour from his 15-3 record last year, but he showed he was more than capable in crunch tiebreakers, twice seeing off his German opponent. It was not smooth sailing the whole way though, with the Austrian striking the first blow in the third set with a break in the third game courtesy of three winners in that game. A few games later though, Zverev took back the break with one of his own off a couple of opportunities to make it 3-3. Neither player could find a way to break again for the rest of the match, heading to a tiebreaker where Thiem’s three winners – including back-to-back winners when at 5-3 – got him home. For the entire set he won 83 per cent of his first serve points to Zverev’s 65 per cent, while hitting 20-15 winners, though had 12-9 unforced errors.

Following on from the third set, neither player could breakthrough the opponents’ serve, not even creating a break point opportunity and heading to a tiebreaker. Thiem’s serving was absolutely elite with a 92 per cent winning record on his first serve, and only dropping a total of seven points for the set all up. Zverev was solid himself, fropping the 13 points for the final set, and had an impressive 75 per cent efficiency off the serve, as well as leading the winners count, 13-9. The tiebreaker was the moment where Thiem shone, rebounding from back-to-back unforced errors at 3-0 to only be 3-2 ahead, he drop just two more points for the match, hitting three winners in the last four points to win the tiebreaker 7-4 and send himself into the final.