The 2020 season has been like no other in tennis. This year’s Baseline Awards look at the standout performers and moments during an unusual season. (Photos: Getty Images)

Coming off a 2019 campaign that saw him win his first Masters title in Indian Wells and make a run to the ATP Finals, two-time French Open finalist Dominic Thiem continued to prove that he was a threat on hard courts by reaching the championship round at the Australian Open to kick off 2020.

From the round of 16 through the semifinals, he defeated three members of the top 10 in a row: No. 10 Gael Monfils, top-ranked Rafael Nadal and world No. 7 Alexander Zverev. It appeared a fourth consecutive win against the game’s elite was in store when he took a two-sets-to-one lead against Novak Djokovic in the final. However, the world No. 2 rallied to win in five and Thiem was left on the outside looking in for the third time in his career.

The Baseline Awards:
Over-the-hump
performance

The Baseline Awards: Over-the-hump performance

Advertising

Still, with such a strong performance in Melbourne behind him, optimism was high that this could be the year that he made a breakthrough at the French Open over the summer. His plans, and everyone else’s, however, took a hit when the tennis world shut down due to the global pandemic.

When play did resume, Thiem entered the “bubble” in New York—and promptly lost his opening match at the Western & Southern Open. With Nadal missing the US Open, Thiem was bumped up to the second spot in the draw at the year’s second major. After getting through his first couple of matches quite easily, he faced a series of tests against 2014 champ Marin Cilic and two of the game’s brightest young stars, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Alex De Minaur. Passing those, he then took on last year’s runner-up Daniil Medvedev, who had been cruising to that point. The world No. 5 went down in straight sets and Thiem was through to his second Slam final of the year, where he’d face Zverev.

The German, long predicted to become a major champion, finally earned the opportunity to play for a Grand Slam title. Thiem had stopped Zverev’s charge in Melbourne earlier in the year and it seemed the German was out for revenge as he stormed through the first two sets. Turning the match into a battle of attrition Thiem pushed Zverev into a fifth set tiebreak. The final mini-frame was an up-and-down affair, but when Zverev hit his final shot wide on match point, Thiem was at last a Grand Slam champion.

Thiem’s momentum didn’t carry over to Paris, where he was upset in the quarterfinals. Still, the shortened season was a major success as he got over his personal hurdle in Grand Slam finals to truly join the greats of the game.