NEW DELHI: After winning his maiden US Open title in a historic five-set final on Monday, Austria's Dominic Thiem said the match 'truly deserved more than one champion'.
Thiem defeated Germany's Alexander Zverev after making an unprecedented comeback in the five-set long final that lasted more than four hours 2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6(6).
Zverev, who at one point looked to win the game easily, failed to stop the Austrian from winning three consecutive sets despite showing resilience in the fifth set.
Thiem said he is sure that Zverev will win the US Open in the future and thanked him for being a great rival and a real friend.
"It had to be like this - my career was always like the match today - many ups and downs and I love the way it turned out," Thiem tweeted.
"This match truly deserved more than one champion and I'm sure that you @AlexZverev will also lift this trophy sometimes soon. Thank you for being a great rival and more so for being a real friend on tour," he added.
This was the first US Open final to be decided by a fifth-set tie-break. Thiem is the first player to rally from two sets down in a US Open final since Pancho Gonzales did it against Ted Schroeder in 1949 at an event then known as the US Championships.
He also became the first Grand Slam champion born in the 1990s.
With this win, Thiem claimed his maiden Grand Slam trophy after three previous defeats in the finals of tennis majors. He joined Thomas Muster (1995 Roland Garros) as the only Austrian man to win a major championship.