Thiem says goodbye to Zverev in the Vienna Stadthalle

Who didn’t stay awake in the… Night of September 14, 2020? Which Austrian wasn’t annoyed by the inferior performance of Dominic Thiem in the first two sentences? Which red-white-red tennis fan didn’t stay seated after catching up and drink a bottle of champagne after a sweaty final set – regardless of whether Monday was a working day?

Thiem defeated the German Alexander Zverev back then in the final of the US Open 2:6, 4:6, 6:4, 6:3, 7:6 and celebrated his greatest triumph. It was also his last tournament victory to date. And he will remain so. It cannot be assumed that he will be in Vienna at his farewell tournament, where the Italians will kick off on Tuesday Luciano Darderi waits, gets his 18th triumph. He knows that: “I definitely won’t be playing for the title.”

Rather, in Vienna it’s about saying goodbye to a star with dignity. And that happened yesterday before the official start of the tournament First Bank Open. And there wouldn’t have been a better partner than Zverev, with whom he met on Sunday evening 5,000 fans in the town hall (there were no finals at the US Open at the time due to the Corona virus) played another set as a farewell. This won in a partly humorous spectacle 6:3.

And the celebrities were large, numerous companions didn’t want to miss the spectacle. Boris Becker, a big fan of Thiem, was there as announced or the long-time coach Nicolas Massubut also friend and top ski jumper Stefan Kraft took a quick look. Also the entire ÖTV leadership around the president Martin Ohneberg and sports director Jürgen Melzer said “goodbye”.

While Thiem is 31 due to his Wrist problems If he is looking for other fields of activity (and will be successful there too), Zverev, at 27, is certainly not thinking about ending his career. Although health problems also plague him.

On Monday against Thiem’s ​​successor

The German, who also has to take medication for diabetes, still complains about the after-effects of pneumonia. “It’s not a matter of a week or two. I hope that I’ll be back to 100 percent by next year when I arrive in Australia.” Spicy: The 18-year-old is waiting in round one today (not before 6 p.m.). Joel Schwärzler a red-white-red successor candidate to Thiem.