Madrid Open 2018: Alexander Zverev Beats Dominic Thiem to Win Final

Alexander Zverev sauntered to victory in the 2018 Madrid Open final on Sunday and beat Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-4 to complete a seamless tournament in which he failed to drop a set.

The German was clearly the superior player on the day and turned his advantage into his first win in Madrid, while Thiem has now suffered back-to-back defeats in the final of this tournament.

Zverev collected his second ATP World Tour win this month in the Spanish capital and got the better of fellow emerging superstar Thiem in a meeting between players tipped to pick up the torch of tennis' departing veterans.

The margins between these two were incredibly close entering Sunday's final, with Zverev and Thiem having each claimed 25 ATP victories apiece but with one set to edge ahead in that competition.

Thiem, 24, boasted a 4-1 career record against Zverev from their five meetings, although the latter athlete was demonstrating an unforgivable streak in Madrid that might have worried the Austrian, via Tennis TV:

Hopes were high for Thiem, too, after he gained redemption against defending champion Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals, avenging the defeat he suffered at the Spaniard's hands in last year's Madrid final.

But even with a large section of the Madrid crowd behind him, Thiem wobbled on his opening serve and suffered a break in the match-opening game.

Zverev had never succeeded in beating Thiem on clay prior to Sunday, but the 21-year-old conjured his inner Nadal and gave a sturdy display, the same kind of relentless play that's served him so well throughout the week.

The younger of the two won 83 percent of his first-service points and 68 percent of his second, per Flashscore.com—to Thiem's 72 and 52. The Times' Stuart Fraser lauded a steely display from the German:

This was the same kind of intensity that saw Zverev through to victory at the 2018 BMW Open earlier in May, and he picked up where he left off in the second set, breaking Thiem at the first opportunity.

Those two breaks came at the beginning of each set, and tennis reporter Jose Morgado concurred Thiem's prospects looked bleak from there:

Zverev failed to see as much as a deuce on his own serve but piled the pressure on Thiem at times and might consider this a turning point in their head-to-head.

The win in Madrid also contributes the ideal preparation for the 2018 French Open; the first round kicks off at Roland Garros on May 27, with Zverev and Thiem both likely to be competing for a place in the late stages.