First six, even seven, games were very promising but the complete change of tactics from Medvedev resulted in his fairly commanding win.
Meddy started the match in his default pushing mode he has been operating in the last few months — repetitive, medium-paced, high-percentage backhand cross-court shots that, to be fair, frustrate a LOT of players, just not the top guys. Thiem could not be bothered by them — had enough time and space to do whatever he wanted with the ball and was bossing Meddy around with his single-hander by mixing slices with sharp angles and huge bombs. He was easily the better player by 3-3.
It all changed in game #7 when Medvedev suddenly realized (or was told by Cervara?) that such play would get him howhere — and totally changed his hitting pattern. From that point on he was targetting almost exclusively Thiem's forehand. We know this shot is THE problem for Dominic ever since his comeback and that proved to be the case once again. Almost immediately his FH wing started leaking errors and never stopped till the end of the match. To Meddy's credit, his own forehand which has become increasingly shaky this year was holding up nicely to allow him keep Dominic under pressure — Meddy prevailed in majority of FH to FH exchanges. Thiem hardly having cheap points on serve didn't help him either.
Despite the scoreline, there were quite a few points and shots for highlight reel.
