Top 5 Indian Wells Finals, No. 4: Dominic Thiem d. Roger Federer, 2019
This classic clash seems to come from a different era, and point to a different future than the one we have today.
This week, we're counting down the Top 5 Indian Wells finals (look for the Top 5 Miami finals soon!)
Was this match really played just five years ago? If it seems like it comes from another age entirely, that’s because it does: The Before Times. It was the last match played at Indian Wells before the pandemic. A year later, the tournament would be the first to shut down due to Covid-19, and it would be one of the few that was postponed again in 2021.
But Federer vs. Thiem feels vintage for a couple other reasons.
Each player wields a one-handed backhand, something that was rare in big matches then, and has only become rarer since. Federer was the last of the game’s legends to use the shot, and Thiem is the last man to win a Grand Slam title with one.
Beyond that, the Swiss and the Austrian themselves have mostly vanished. Federer retired two years ago, and Thiem’s recent comeback has stalled. He hasn’t played a tournament since the Australian Open, and said he will consider retiring for good if he doesn’t reach the Top 50 by year’s end.
At the time, though, this win was a major breakthrough for Thiem, and it looked like a possible changing-of-the-guard moment for the ATP. It was his first Masters 1000 title, and proof that he could beat a member of the Big 3 at an important hard-court event. Before this, we knew Thiem was a slugger, a speedster, a spectacular athlete; here he showed that he could use that athleticism to win at the highest level. The following September, he used it again to win the US Open.
History aside, this was still a tremendous clash, one of a series of excellent Indian Wells men’s finals through the 2010s.
Federer jumped to an early lead, won the first set, and was on the verge of extending his lead early in the second. He was playing flawlessly, but he couldn’t keep the younger man’s power contained forever, and Thiem gradually turned the rallies around to win the second. By the start of the third, the terms were set: Federer’s serve would have to keep Thiem’s ground strokes at bay, because once the rallies began, Thiem imposed his will. Federer’s job was not to let those rallies start in the first place; he mostly succeeded by making 23 of his first 28 first serves in the third set.
When Thiem served at 3-4 in the third, it looked as if Federer’s superior match skills would carry the day. Thiem began by missing two forehands to go down 0-30. The score seemed sure to become 0-40 when Federer moved Thiem out of position and lined up a forehand into an open court.
Instead of hitting a winner, though, Federer sent the ball wide. Federer was able to reach break point, but when Thiem came to net on a wing and a prayer, Federer hit a backhand pass into the bottom of the net. Thiem held.
In the end, Thiem’s youthful energy and desperation made the difference. Serving at 5-5, Federer went up 30-15, and hit an excellent drop shot. But Thiem, who had been burned by the play earlier, went into overdrive and flicked a crosscourt winner. Strangely, presented with a mid-court forehand on the next point, Federer chose to hit another drop shot to the same spot; the result was another Thiem flick winner. A minute later, Thiem had the match-deciding service break, and the biggest win of his career.
At one point, Thiem fell and cut his elbow, which started to bleed. But he didn’t notice until the match was over—that’s how into it he was. “Thiem played as if his future depended on it,” I wrote afterward.
He got the future he wanted, but it didn’t last nearly as long as he, or anyone else, believed it would.