World No 1, Djokovic’s dream run in the French Open 2019 was put to an end by Dominic Thiem. Thiem defeated Djokovic in a fiercely contested 5 setter which lasted for more than 4 hours. The match was to be played and completed on the 7th Of June 2019 but due to bad weather conditions, the match was stopped three times and then subsequently completed the following day.
The worst part for Djokovic was that post losing this match, his winning streak of 26 Grand Slam match wins was broken. Had the Serb won yesterday’s match and then the final, he would have become the first man in the Open Era to hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time on two different occasions.
Blaming the weather for the defeat, Djokovic lost 2-6, 6-3, 5-7, 7-5, 5-7 to Thiem. On the other hand, Thiem, for the very first time defeated a World Number 1 and booked his place in the final against 11 times winner and the reigning champion, Rafael Nadal.
Both Nadal and Thiem locked horns in the final of the same tournament, French Open 2019, last year as well. Back then, Nadal easily emerged victorious by defeating Thiem 6-4 6-3 6-2.
Thiem won the toss and asked Djokovic to serve. Djokovic held his serve and took a 1-0 lead. He was unable to break Thiem’s serve in the next game and the score was tied 1-1 after two games. Djokovic was 0-30 down in the third game and it started raining and the match was halted as the Serb complained about the drizzle. While Djokovic was 1-3 down, an umbrella flew down the court and frustrated the World Number 1, but he kept his composure and continued playing. Thiem broke Djokovic’s serve. Djokovic then lost the first set 6-2. For the first time Djokovic dropped a set in the tournament.
At 3-2, when Djokovic was leading, the match was halted due to rain but it resumed after a break of 10 minutes. At a 5–3, Djokovic held his serve, easily capturing the second set 6-3 and taking the match score to one set all.
The third set started with Thiem holding his serve and taking a 1-0 lead. At 1-3 down, Djokovic walked off the court since it had started raining again. Post this, the match was suspended and a decision was taken to resume the match on Saturday.
The match resumed on Saturday with Thiem in the lead, Djokovic lost the third set 5-7 and thus was down 1-2 in the match. He however managed to bounce back in the fourth set which was a hotly contested set but Djokovic kept his nerves and won it 7-5 to tie the match 2-2 and extend the match to the fifth set.
The final set was initially dominated by Thiem. Djokovic was 3-5 & 15-40 down in the final set but managed to save two match points to win the ninth game. He bounced back by holding his serve in the tenth game to tie the final set to 5-5. But this was all which Djokovic managed to do in the fifth and the final set. Thiem won the next two games, thus sealing the match and booking a place in the final against the reigning champion, Rafael Nadal, who earlier beat Roger Federer in the other semi-final.
