PARIS—For the third year in a row, Dominic Thiem has made his way to the semifinals of Roland Garros, doing so in a brisk hour and 50 minutes against Alexander Zverev, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1. Unfortunately, following a fine first set, the latter two sets revealed far more about Zverev’s increasing weariness than Thiem’s sustained brilliance.

The first set was both the gem and the story. With Thiem serving at 2-3, 30-15, the two embarked on a scintillating 19-ball rally, won in the end when a Thiem forehand elicited an error. In the next game, at 3-all, the Austrian reached 15-40. Another long rally, 12 balls long, closed out when Thiem uncoiled a crosscourt backhand winner, a glorious shot that in one rolling swing held the promise of taking tennis into a whole new era of power and artistry. With the break in hand, Thiem closed it out at 5-4, 40-15 with a 126-m.p.h. wide ace.

Though Zverev possesses a narrower range of tools than Thiem, those he brings are quite impressive—particularly the serve and the backhand, the latter a shot the German can drive with repeated depth, both crosscourt and down-the-line.

So there were Thiem and Zverev, clearly two stars in the ascent; up in the stands, icons such as three-time Roland Garros champion Mats Wilander, 1998 winner Carlos Moya and Zverev’s stylistic ancestor, Marat Safin, took it all in. Such is the ebb and flow, the buzz and hum, of a Grand Slam clock ticking in both directions, of past there and future here.

Thiem has always grabbed his tennis by the throat. When I asked him what had changed in his game over the last 12 months, Thiem said, “I'm a better player in general, for sure. There was another year of work where I improved and developed my game…. I always knew how to play on clay, but I think that now I'm just making less stupid mistakes. Maybe I'm even a little bit more aggressive, and that's a good combination.”

WATCH—Match point, Dominic Thiem:

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The joy in watching Thiem is that he is both grinder and shotmaker, a workhorse in his movements and cold-stone killer when it comes to throwing the knockout punch. Thiem’s slice backhand proved frequently effective, forcing Zverev to repeatedly bend, lift and hit the ball out of his comfortable, waist-high contact point.

Two games early in the second set propelled matters to their conclusive turn. At 1-1, 15-30, Zverev double-faulted. Thiem cashed in the break point with an elegant and tenacious mix: a scamper, then backhands both topped and carved, the latter triggering a missed backhand from Zverev. Though Zverev reached break point in the next game, Thiem repelled it with a crisp crosscourt forehand pass. At a half-volley backhand lob at deuce from Thiem revealed even more of his artistry and then went up 3-1—and 4-1 with a second service break.

Zverev called for the trainer, who wrapped his left thigh. It had all caught up with him, all the labors of three five-set matches and perhaps also the mental exertion of reaching his first Grand Slam quarterfinal.

“First time I felt a pull was in the fourth game of the first set when we had, you know, a few great points, you know, a lot of physical points," said Zverev. "

I remember I slid one time, and then I felt, like, a muscle pull. I thought, well, okay. I played a lot. I thought maybe it's just, like, soreness or something that would just go away. I didn't think about it too much.
 And then, you know, each game and each slide, I was getting worse and worse. Middle of the second set, the pain was too much.”

Thiem went on to take the second set, 6-2. He went up 4-0 in the third and, save for several splash and slashed winners from Zverev and a few loose errors Thiem, the end came swiftly.

“It's never easy if your opponent obviously is not 100 percent,” said Thiem. “But he's one of the fittest guys on tour, and even for him it's maybe even a little bit too tough to play three five-setters in the first rounds of a Slam. So I expected somehow that he's a little bit tired, but still I'm happy how I finished the game. I let him run. I was doing what I had to do, and so I'm satisfied.”

While Zverev’s Roland Garros had ended with a thud, it was the best Slam run of his career.

“This is a very positive week for me. My first quarter. I lost to a great player. I was hurt a little bit. So who knows? Who knows what could have happened?”

Surely, Zverev had begun to answer a few of the questions that had hung over his efforts at the majors. But with an MRI scheduled next, Zverev’s future would have to wait. For Thiem, the future is now.

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Fitness and Dominic Thiem do in Alexander Zverev at Roland Garros

Fitness and Dominic Thiem do in Alexander Zverev at Roland Garros

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