Dominic Thiem won his first Grand Slam title in a five-set thriller against Alexander Zverev ©Getty Images

Austrian second seed Dominic Thiem made history in the men's singles final at the US Open after coming from two sets down to defeat Germany's Alexander Zverev and win his first Grand Slam.

Both players came into the semi-finals knowing that a new Grand Slam winner would be crowned for the first time since Croatian Marin Čilić won the Flushing Meadows tournament in 2014.

This was the case after Serbia's world number one Novak Djokovic was defaulted from his match with Spain's Pablo Carreño Busta after he unintentionally smacked a tennis ball into the throat of an official with his back turned.

After Thiem turned over Russia's Daniil Medvedev in straight but close sets in the last four, and Zverev made a superb comeback against Carreño Busta in five sets – two of the favourites for the tournament set-up a final to remember at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York.

It was Thiem who came through in dramatic circumstances, 2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6.

Thiem might have been considered the favourite against the fifth seed, having only lost one set in the tournament  – coincidentally against 31st seed Čilić in the third round.

However, he found himself behind in the first set as the German battered him to win 6-2 and Zverev looked on course to win his first Grand Slam when he won the second set 6-4.

Yet, the Austrian started to turn the screw in the third set, turning the tide in the match when he responded to pull a set back.

He had similar fortune to what Zverev had in the early sets, tying the match at 2-2 when he broke the German to win 6-3 in the fourth.

Even if the momentum was on Thiem's side, it was not all over.

In a true classic, the fifth set went to a tiebreak after Zverev looked to be in charge. 

Winning 8-6 in the tiebreak, Thiem was crowned the 2020 US Open men's singles champion, while Zverev was left heartbroken from the loss.

There were four breaks of serve in the final five games of the match, and 15 in total.

"It was tough to stay there and to still believe, but I did," Thiem said in his post-match press conference. 

"It's a Slam final, the belief was always there." 

The Austrian became the first player in the open era to win from two sets down in the US Open final, and is only the second Grand Slam winner from his country after 2005 French Open champion Thomas Muster.