Dominic Thiem went down to Sebastian Korda of the US in three sets in the semifinals of the European Open in Antwerp on Saturday.
Playing in his third semifinal of the season, former world no. 3 Thiem lost 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-7 (4) against Korda in two hours 43 minutes in the pair’s first-ever meeting on tour.
The 29-year-old Austrian came back from 2-4 down in the tiebreak to clinch the opening set. However, Korda, who had finished as runner-up at last week’s Gijon Open, broke Thiem’s serve thrice to win the second set.
In the deciding third set, Thiem made the first move by breaking Korda in the seventh game to go 4-3 up but he failed to consolidate the advantage in the following game. Both players managed to hold their serve in the next four games, leading to another tiebreak. The 22-year-old American, just like the opening set, had a 4-2 lead in the tiebreak but this time, he held his nerve and converted his second match point when Thiem sent a forehand volley wide.
Korda will face either Frenchman Richard Gasquet or Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime in what will be the 22-year-old American’s fourth career tour-level final and second in two weeks.
Thiem, who was looking to reach his first tour-level final since the 2020 ATP Finals, returned to professional tennis in March this year after sitting out for nine months due to a wrist injury sustained at the 2021 Mallorca Championships.
He lost to Argentine Pedro Cachin in the first round of a Challenger event in Marbella in his first match after coming back from the injury. Few days after the match, Thiem announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19.
He suffered six straight defeats on the main tour including a first-round exit at Roland Garros, where he had previously reached the final in 2018 and 2019, before finally emerging victorious against Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori in the first round in Gstaad.
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