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2019 French Open, Men's singles semi-final Philippe-Chatrier Court, Roland Garros Novak Djokovic (Serbia) vs Dominic Thiem (Austria) |
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Top seed Novak Djokovic will look to starve off the power game of Dominic Thiem, who continues his attempt to break through at a grand slam in the semi-finals of the French Open. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 11pm (AEST).
Djokovic has been in fine form across all surfaces in 2019, and is slight favourite to win here as well, but he has had problems with Thiem on the clay court, as most players have.
In fact, their overall head to head stands at six-two in favour of Djokovic, however, Thiem has won two of their five matches on clay, which is actually two of their last three, and it was only a pair of tiebreakers which got the Djoker over the line when they met in Madrid earlier this year.
That all being said, this is far from a foregone conclusion.
Thiem has a game which, while heavily reliant on a strong serve and power, is very accurate and has enough change-ups to facilitate a very strong clay court game.
The Austrian came into the tournament as the fourth seed and avoided being on the same side of the draw as Rafael Nadal, who plays Roger Federer in the other semi-final.
The world No.4 was taken to four sets in each of his first three rounds at Roland Garros, but has since been dominant, blasting his way past Gael Monfils and Karen Khachanov with relative ease in the fourth round and quarter-final respectively.
With Thiem coming into form and having a short match last night, it will allow him to be relatively fresh, which you need to be against Djokovic, who finds a way of turning every match he plays into a severely physical one.
Djokovic, on the other hand, also had a short match last night as he made Alexander Zverev look like an unseeded rookie in a 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 smashing.
It’s just been a continuation of the form Djokovoic has had all clay court season though, which included a tournament victory in Madrid.
Still, Thiem on clay presents a very challenging match-up for the Djoker, and this could go down as something of a classic.
Prediction
Djokovic is the best player in the world across all surfaces right now, and his rise back to the top of tennis has been phenomenal, however, this is Thiem’s time to shine. He might get the job done in five.
Thiem in five sets.
Start time: 11pm (AEST)
Venue: Philippe-Chatrier Court, Roland Garros, Paris
TV: Live, Fox Sports, SBS
Online: Live, Kayo Sports, Foxtel App, Foxtel Now
Betting: Djokovic $1.45, Thiem $2.71
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