Dominic Thiem was a set down and was facing his third defeat at the Master Series here in the desert at the hands of the greatest player of them all. However, soon the Austrian managed to find a way in the game to defeat Roger Federer by 3-6, 6-3 and 7-5 to win the Paribas Open tournament title.
Thiem, he worlds rank no. 7 will now move up to his career-high rank of world no. 4 on Monday WTA ranking. Thiem was clearly in a tough spot as he had already lost two Masters Finals in Madrid. His chances here in the desert also seemed slim when Federer claimed the first set of their match.
Still, Thiem did not panicked and fought to gain the second set causing Federer to lose the first set in all the week. Thiem then claims the third set causing the Swiss great game to be riddled with errors.
Thiem before picking up the trophy said to Federer, “It has been such a pleasure and honor to have competed with you and to learn so much from you. It is an honor to be playing with the biggest legends of all time. I do not feel this to be my place to congratulate you as you have 88 more titles than I have. So, in the end, I am only going to hope that you play some more and we can also play against each other in some big finals.”
As for Federer, he was full of praise for his opponent and said, “It has been a great week for me even if it did not work out the way I hoped for. What an amazing week for Dominic. He played wonderfully at the end and throughout this week. I had to play against someone who was at the end of the day a bit better when it really mattered. I have been in these kinds of situations often and I get over them quickly.”
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