In his shutdown of Djokovic, Thiem gave us a glimpse of the future

Dominic Thiem was facing two set points on his serve at 4-5 in the first set against Novak Djokovic. This wasn’t an unfamiliar position for the 23-year-old Austrian. In his five previous matches with the Serb, he had won just one set. Last month in Rome, he had won just one game.

This time, though, Thiem knew exactly what to do. He knew what had worked for him this spring when his back was to the wall and he absolutely had to have a point. He had done it when he saved five match points to beat Grigor Dimitrov in Madrid. He had done it when he saved three more to beat Sam Querrey in Rome. Now it was his turn to do it against Djokovic.

As he has for the last two months, Thiem went on the attack, played to his strength, took the rally into his own hands, and trusted that his mix of power and spin would see him through safely. At 15-40, Thiem ripped the first forehand he saw to within a foot of the baseline, raced in behind it and knocked off a winning volley. Thiem always hits big from the baseline, but he rarely follows his ground strokes into the net right away. But as he has learned recently, the best thing for him to do when he’s nervous or desperate is to double down on his own offensive skills. The sooner he pulls the trigger, the better for him. It’s not a tactic for everyone; you have to be supremely confident in your natural shot-making ability. But it’s a tactic that has worked for years for another pretty fair clay-courter: Rafael Nadal.

Thiem held serve for 5-5, went on to win the tiebreaker 7-5 and never looked back. His 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-0 win was the breakthrough we had been waiting for from him. It was his first win over Djokovic, his first win over one of the Big Four at a major, and it put him in his second Roland Garros semifinal in a row.

“I was 0-5 against him,” Thiem said of Djokovic. “To beat him in the quarterfinals of the French Open is a dream.”

Afterward, Djokovic said the key moment came when he lost an early service break at 4-2 in the first. He also singled out the heavy spin Thiem can put on the ball as a major factor in the result. That heavy spin was never more apparent than it was in that 4-2 game. Thiem reached break point with a series of heavy forehands that Djokovic ultimately couldn’t control, and he broke with a heavy backhand that the Serb also couldn’t handle. Thiem has two equally lethal strokes from the back of the court.

From there, Thiem shook off any nerves or inhibitions that had been holding him back and completely took over the match. Swinging out on virtually every shot, hitting with enough pace that he didn’t need to aim especially close to the lines, he rarely allowed Djokovic a chance to take the initiative in a rally. Even when Djokovic did get Thiem on the run, the younger player had the answer. Serving at 0-1 in the second set, down break point, Djokovic hit what looked to be a winning drop shot. Instead, Thiem tracked it down and knifed a backhand crosscourt. Djokovic stumbled and fell in a vain attempt to reach it. If the match could be summed up in one point, it was that one.

Djokovic’s last chance came with Thiem serving at 4-2 in the second set. Djokovic reached break point, but Thiem had the answer again. It was the same shot he would use a dozen times—the kick serve wide into the ad court—but Djokovic was powerless to stop it. This may have been the first time his return has been powerless to stop anything.

After that game, some of the life went out of Djokovic. With his title defense on the line, he offered stunningly little resistance in the third set.

“It was not there for me today, especially in the second part of the match,” Djokovic said. “I was just unable to, you know, hit the ball well and many unforced errors.”

“Nothing was going my way, and everything his way. But it was decided in the first set.”

Djokovic admitted that he’s still struggling to find the form that took him to the title here last year. With this loss, he’ll drop out of the Top 2 for the first time since 2011. Last year he left Roland Garros holding all four Grand Slam titles; 12 months later, he leaves holding none of them.

People will focus on the third-set bagel, but every tennis player loses 6-0 now and then. Djokovic’s lack of intensity down the stretch was surprising from a defending champion, but so was his lack of intensity earlier on, when the match still in the balance. In the crucial first-set tiebreaker, Djokovic was already rushing and pulling the trigger too early in rallies. Against Thiem in Rome, he had been as fired up as he has been all season. In Paris, that fire looked extinguished.

Still, it took Thiem’s excellent play to put it out. This spring, he has grown into the player, and future champion, most people suspected was there. At times against Djokovic he seemed to be playing at a new level, his vicious yet safe mix of pace and spin an evolutionary step forward. He’ll have to stay at that level in his next match, when he faces Nadal in the semifinals. The Spaniard and the Austrian have played three times already during the clay season, with Nadal leading 2-1. This meeting could pit one era’s perennial Roland Garros champion against the next era’s.

Is the guard ready to change in Paris? Thiem knows that his game can work for him when he desperately needs a point. After beating Djokovic at Roland Garros, he knows that can work against anyone, anywhere.

Holding Serve with Roger Federer will air on Thursday, June 8th at 2 p.m. ET, only on Tennis Channel.

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