Dominic Thiem wins Belgrade leg of Adria Tour, beats Filip Krajinovic in the final
Dominic Thiem came out on top in a thrilling final against hometown favorite Filip Krajinovic, winning 4-3(2) 2-4 4-2, to bring the Belgrade leg of the Adria Tour to an end.
Despite being in control for a large part of the match, Dominic Thiem was pushed to the limit by Krajinovic in a match full of brilliant exchanges and exciting moments. No player seemed to have control of the first set but Thiem edged the tiebreaker 6-2 with some brilliant down-the-line backhands.
Krajinovic came out all guns blazing in the second set and after an exchange of breaks, took the second set 4-2. However, the Serb was outplayed by Dominic Thiem in the third, thus failing to give the home crowd the result they wanted.
Dominic Thiem was the favorite to be the top performer of the weekend, after having already played a string of matches in the Austrian Pro Series exhibition event. And he certainly did not disappoint.
The World No. 3 prevailed over Damian Dzumhur on Saturday, with the Bosnian international retired after the very first game. He then overcame the fight put up by Dusan Lajovic in an electrifying encounter, winning by the score of 1-4 4-1 4-3(6). In his last group stage match, the Austrian defeated Grigor Dimitrov to set up the final with Krajinovic.
Dominic Thiem now moves on to his packed schedule of exhibition tournaments across Europe, while the rest of the Adria Tour players travel to Zadar for the second leg.
Flip Krajinovic: An unlikely finalist who gave Dominic Thiem a run for his money
Despite being on the same side of the draw as Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev, Filip Krajinovic reached the final against Dominic Thiem in dramatic fashion. With Zverev, Djokovic and Krajinovic all tied at two wins and one loss, as well as five wins and three losses in sets each, Krajinovic prevailed due to percentage of games won.
Krajinovic, ranked 32nd in the world, won 61% (28 out of 46) of his games as compared to Djokovic's tally of 57% (24 out of 42), while Zverev managed to win only 51% (22 out of 43) of his games played.
Krajinovic looked very good throughout the tournament, with his standout performance being in a 2-4 4-2 4-1 win over fellow Serb and World No. 1 Novak Djokovic. Djokovic, who is organizing the tournament, was left stunned in front of the maximum capacity crowd as he failed to come up with an answer to Krajinovic's defense.
In the final as well, Krajinovic more than held his own against Dominic Thiem. The Serb eventually just missed out on what would have been a remarkable victory.