Austrian Dominic Thiem has claimed his first Grand Slam title, outlasting German Alexander Zverev in five-sets in the US Open final.
The No.2 seed fought back from two sets and a service break down late in the fifth, winning 2-6 4-6 6-3 6-4 7-6 in a touch over four hours.
The 27-year-old world No.2, beaten in his first three Grand Slam finals, started as favourite, but appeared to have blown his golden chance, as he fell two sets behind.
Thiem, who had dropped only one set en route to the final, looked stifled by nerves early, but gradually broke the shackles to hit back from a break down to take the third.
Zverev faltered on serve at 3-4 in a high-quality fourth set, allowing Thiem to take the contest to a decider.
A limping Thiem trailed 5-3 in the decider, but summoned some incredible baseline winners to take it into a nerve-jangling tiebreak.
A gut-wrenching climax saw Thiem squander two match points from 6-4 with forehand errors but he would not be denied and set up a third match point with a passing shot before Zverev fired wide after four hours and two minutes.
"I wish there were two winners today, we both deserved it," Thiem said on court after a tearful speech from his crestfallen 23-year-old opponent and close friend.
Thiem had lost the last two French Open finals to Rafa Nadal and this year's Australian Open final to Novak Djokovic.
This time he started as the favourite, but needed to become the first player to win a Grand Slam title from two sets down since Gaston Gaudio at the 2004 French Open to end his wait.
Thiem is the first male player born in the 1990s to claim a Grand Slam and the first besides the big three of Nadal, Djokovic and Roger Federer to claim one of the Majors since Stan Wawrinka won the 2016 US Open.
Reuters/Newshub.
