Dominic Thiem Reflects on Winning 2020 U.S. Open Title
On this week's Beyond the Baseline podcast, host Jon Wertheim talks with two guests. First, Dominic Thiem joins the podcast less than 24 hours after winning his first career Grand Slam title over Alexander Zverev at the 2020 U.S. Open in New York. Thiem shares his thoughts on the championship match against Zverev, how he dealt with pressure during the tournament; how winning this title will impact him going forward; and more. Then, Barnard College president and cognitive scientist Sian Beilock discusses the absence of fans at the 2020 U.S. Open and its impact on the players; the concept of pressure, especially as it relates to the tournament's semifinalists and finalists; and more.
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The following transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Dominic Thiem: I didn’t have time yet to reflect on this incredible match. It’s surreal to me still. And also, yesterday we went straight to the hotel after all the press. Had some dinner together and then didn’t sleep one second so I was not able to reflect, but I guess that’s coming in the next days.
Jon Wertheim: I was going to say, you pulled an all-nighter as we say. How do you celebrate a major during lockdown? This is a new one. How do you celebrate when you can’t exactly go to Manhattan and go crazy?
DT: Honestly, we had pizza with my team in the hotel room and then we were just chilling. Talking about the previous four weeks, about the tournament. And I think that I wouldn’t have done it differently when everything would be normal.
JW: What effect do you think it made on you not having fans there?
DT: It was tough for everybody, I guess. Because the fans, the full stadium gives you so much energy, positive energy, you can really rely on them. You can rely on them that they will carry you tough situations, carry you through when you feel flat and all this falls away. Of course, the teams they put in huge effort but it’s only three people so it was really tough to all the time bring the energy yourself, push yourself all the time. It was a unique situation and probably even tougher than when the stadium is full.
JW: In the moment, are you aware of just how crazy a match this is? I mean, are you aware of all these wild swings?
DT: I am, yeah. I mean, usually I really remember most of the details in every match, and first four sets were really kind of strange but then the fifth set, I never experienced something like that before. It was so weird, such a big drama. He was up, I was up. He served for the match, I served for the match and we ended up in the tie break. With all the years we know each other, the friendship we share, the journey brought us to Grand Slam finals and then we battle it out in a fifth set tie break. It’s just so crazy and, well I guess I was just the lucky one yesterday.
JW: It’s normal to feel pressure before big matches. Did you know how intense the pressure was before you got out there? Did you know before you hit the first ball, that you were really nervous?
DT: Most of the times, I find the perfect mix between too nervous and not enough nervous which is very necessary. Yesterday I just didn’t find it. I was feeling really good at the warmup, I was hitting the ball every clean very good. I didn’t have any pain, was fully fit and then I go out and suddenly I feel so nervous so tight. Arms are heavy, legs are heavy, I cannot really play my real tennis and that was tough and then all of a sudden, I’m two sets down.
JW: And what are you telling yourself after that?
DT: I was telling myself—I was hoping that I would free up at some point and then I was telling myself well this is a major final, fight for every point, doesn’t matter what happened. It cannot get way worse than that. And just hoping that also your opponent gives you something. Because he was playing very, very good at the beginning, serving, amazing. Laying softly from the back and um, then he gave me a little bit, maybe some easy mistakes from the baseline and I brought him back in to third and that was the moment where I freed up and when it became a good match.
JW: My German is not so good, and I was reading this and maybe mistranslated it, but did you say it may have been a disadvantage that you had played in three major finals before this? Did I get that right?
DT: Yeah. Experience is one thing but the other thing is that—I lost one major final is fine, a second one as well, especially if it’s a good match on clay, but then the third one was very painful in Australia. I had the chances for the first time I was getting pretty close to it, I had a feeling and then you’re 0-3 major finals and it’s getting to your head slowly. It’s just the pressure was growing on myself and before this tournament I said to myself, “Is there another chance coming? Another chance for the title?” And that made it really difficult and that’s why I had so much pressure. For Zverev, it was the first Slam final and maybe that is little bit easier. I don’t know how he feels, I cannot look into his head. But I had a feeling for me, it was very tough to go in there and play my free tennis.
JW: Really? That’s really interesting even before the tournament, you were telling yourself, “What an opportunity this is.”
DT: Yeah of course, I mean, I told myself it’s another great opportunity and then I didn’t want to say to anybody, I didn’t even want to say it to myself, but still it was 100% the case that in the back of my head. And also the other players when Novak [Djokovic] goes out, the chances of the Grand Slam title are increasing definitely and that was another detail of what made the pressure grow.
For more from Dominic Thiem, listen to SI's Beyond the Baseline podcast.
