2020 in Review: Filip Krajinovic demolishes Dominic Thiem in career-best match

World no. 3 and the Australian Open finalist Dominic Thiem had to hit the practice court ahead of the US Open. In his first official match since February, the three-time Major finalist suffered one of the toughest losses in a career against Filip Krajinovic in New York. The Serb scored a 6-2, 6-1 victory in swift 61 minutes, storming over Dominic to reach the third round. Back in June, Dominic and Filip had battled for the title at the Adria Tour in Belgrade. The Austrian claimed that one but was nowhere near that form in New York, playing way below his usual level to suffer an early loss. Filip came to New York with a 13-14 score at the Masters 1000 level, scoring one top-10 triumph from 17 encounters and dominantly changing all that against Thiem. In his best serving performance ever, Krajinovic dropped two (!!) points behind the initial shot, drawing momentum from there and having all the space he needed to attack the return.

On the other hand, Thiem lost over half of his games' points, never finding the rhythm and dropping ten out of 11 final games to propel Filip through. The Serb grabbed four breaks, playing better and better as the match advanced to set the Marton Fucsovics clash. The Serb had 17 winners and nine unforced errors, leaving a pale rival far behind, as Thiem counted to 30 unforced mistakes, the most from his forehand wing. Firing a service winner in almost 40% of serve points, Filip had a massive 42-22 advantage in the shortest range up to four strokes and forged a 21-8 lead in the more extended ones to seal the deal in style.

Filip Krajinovic scored a dominant 6-2, 6-1 victory at the Cincinnati Masters.

Krajinovic held at 15 in the first game, landed a service winner at 1-1 for a hold at love and repeated that in game five to remain in front. Staying in touch up to that moment, Dominic sprayed a forehand error in game six to suffer a break, allowing Krajinovic to open a 5-2 gap with a hold at love.

From 40-15 in the eighth game, the Austrian dropped four straight points to hand another break and a set to his rival, having to raise his level significantly if he wanted to chase the victory. Continuing where he left in the opener, Filip held at love in the second set's first game, converting the third break chance in game two and producing another hold at love for a 3-0 lead. Thiem's drop shot error pushed the Serb 4-1 ahead, and the match was about to finish soon after that when Krajinovic earned a break in game six and moved over the top with three winners a few minutes later for one of the most impressive triumphs in a career.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3aIKXqE