
David Goffin become the first Belgian man to ever make the quarters of the Australian Open with his 5/7 7/6 (4) 6/2 6/2 win over 8th seed, Austrian Dominic Thiem.
You’d expect that a match between the 8th and 11th ranked ATP players wouldn’t show much distance between them, and for the beginning of this match you’d have been right. Yes, the 26 year old Goffin served first, and held at 40/15, and Thiem did not hold his first service game, but the Austrian broke right back. The closeness of their rankings was there to see.
Breaks were traded again, and holds as well, with the two eventually tied at 5 games all. Throughout it all the balls were being brutalized by both players, especially Thiem. Goffin was hitting the ball crisply, but on his best day the 150 lb, 5’ 11” Belgian Davis Cupper is a middleweight compared to the heavy hitting, 180 lb, 6’ 1” Austrian. From the outset is was going to be a matter of whether or not Thiem’s crushing shots would be enough to disrupt Goffin’s consistency and the pinpoint accuracy of his shot selection. To counter Thiem’s power he’d have to be pinpoint in finding his spots.
At 5/5 Thiem broke the Goffin serve when, at 15/40, the Austrian hit a forehand return so hard you’d have thought the ball would cry out in pain. Even though it was sent right to the center of Goffin’s court – he didn’t have to take one step – it was so potent that Goffin was unable to handle it.
A forehand error from Goffin followed by two unreturned serves brought Thiem to set point on his following service game. He closed the deal with an inside-out forehand winner. First set, Thiem, 7/5.
The second set was close fought. Players held serve right up to Thiem’s service game at 4/5, when Goffin first had triple set point at 0/40, and then another at ad out. Thiem erased them with a forehand inside/in winner, an unreturned serve, and an ace, followed later by 219 kph serve on the ad out point. His superior firepower was saving him, big time. A 234 kph serve (!) at deuce brought him to game point, and he closed with a one-two combo of a wide serve and an inside/in forehand winner. They each held serve, and it was 6 games all, tiebreaker time.
Goffin got a mini-break on Thiem’s very first service point, then held both of his opening ‘breaker points, and went up 3/0. Thiem got on the tiebreak scoreboard on the next point, 1/3,. He then took Goffin’s first service point at 4/3 to get the mini-break back; 4 points all. Goffin held for 5/4. An ambitious Thiem down the line backhand missed and gave Goffin 6/4, his fifth set point. Them unloaded on a forehand and it went out. Second set Goffin, 7/6 (4).
While both players had had a few ragged patches up till then, their lapses had all been short. Parity was quickly restored each time either of them wobbled. Both sets were determined at the very end. The standard of play had been quite high.
As the third set progressed, Thiem continued to crack the ball with abandon, but his unforced error percentage began to creep upwards. (He finished with 58, Goffin with 29.) Players held serve to 2/2, when Goffin had double break point. Thiem saved them both, but double faulted at deuce to donate a 4th break point, which Goffin converted. An increasing lack of patience led to more and more errors from the Austrian, and a second break of serve. Goffin staved off a break point out of his own while serving for the set, but held on to take the third, 6/2.
From the way the 23 year old Thiem started the fourth set you’d have been forgiven for thinking he’d righted his ship. He made short work of getting to 30/0, hit an ace for 40/0 and took the game point. He kept going full bore, not on every shot, but often enough that you had to question the tactic. Of course, if he’d been making most of those go-for-broke swings it would have been genius, but he wasn’t, and one had to question Thiem’s stubbornness in not chaining what had become a losing game.
Goffin played smart tennis, sticking with his intelligent shot selection, using Thiem’s pace for much of the rallies while ramping up his own shots’ power when he had a high probability of success. Television commentator Robbie Koenig mentioned that ATP stats showed that the differential between the speed of Goffin’s shots when he was standing still, versus when he’s on the run, is among the smallest difference on the men’s tour; Goffin might not hit the biggest ball on tour, but when he’s on the move his opponents can’t take him out of his comfort zone too much, either. As Thiem’s shots found the mark less and less often, Goffin’s ability to rally steadily and still force the issue became increasingly obvious.
Unforced errors from Thiem let Goffin get an early break for 2/1. By now Goffin was playing completely within himself. An outrageous winner here or there from Thiem never upset Goffin’s resolve. He broke again for 5/2. Cool as a cucumber, Goffin marched to 40 love, triple match point, as Thiem looked ever more deflated. Thiem held the Belgian off for the first match point, but at 40/15 the world’s #8 hit a backhand return into the net and the match belonged to David Goffin, 5/7 7/6 (4) 6/2 6/2.
Looking positively stick-like next to Jim Courier in his on-court interview, the wiry Goffin said the second set was definitely the key to match, and that he’d “continued to push, to push myself to stay in the rallies, to stay on my baseline.” Goffin had beaten Thiem here at the Australian Open last year, but that was a different Dominic Thiem, then ranked #20. Goffin’s steely resolve’s reward was his first ever win over a top ten player in a major tournament.
Next up for Goffin: the winner of Grigor Dimitrov and Denis Istomin.