Thiem comes from behind twice to beat Kyrgios

Defending US champion and current world number 3 Dominic Thiem rallied from two sets down at Melbourne Park to defeat favourite homeboy Nick Kyrgios.

With this being the last day fans were allowed to be present inside the tennis courts, due to a COVID 19 outbreak that has led to a five-day lockdown in Australia, Thiem and Kyrgios gave the fans a fitting game to send them back home without any regrets.

The Australian broke the Austrian in the opening two sets 6-4, 6-4, for an early comfortable 2-0 lead in the third round match. It was Thiem however who was determined to get something out of the game. Nick Kyrgios had two break points to go up two sets and a break on Dominic Thiem. He however didn’t convert and after missing a game point at 0-1, the world number 3 broke. The Austrian then went on to win the third set 6-3 to bring the game to 2-1 going into the fourth set.

Thiem forced a fifth set when Kyrgios was unable to break when he had a breakpoint opportunity. He rallied and won the fourth set 6-4 to force the tie into a deciding fifth set. Thiem broke with the game tied at 3-3 in the deciding fifth set when Kyrgios was serving; he pushed to get two breakpoints. Although he missed his first breakpoint opportunity, his return on the second breakpoint was too hot to handle for the Aussie as he put it into the net. Thiem held onto that break to win the fifth set 6-4 and the overall game 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

“Giving up is never an option, there’s always a chance…with a break in the third set I realized that maybe there’s a chance to turn it around,” said Thiem in the post-match interview with Jim Courier.

Although knocked out in the third round Nick stated how proud he was of himself after months of not playing competitively. He then wished his earlier opponent all the best as he progressed to the fourth round.

“I’m super proud of myself, to produce that level and go toe to toe with one of the best players in the world. I’m pretty proud I left it out all there. I actually physically felt good. Good luck to him, I hope he does well because he’s a hell of a player,” Kyrgios remarked afterward.

Thiem will now face off with Gregor Dimitrov in the fourth round of the Australian Open.