The Austrian qualified for semifinals after winning 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4), 4-6 and 7-6 (6), in four hours and 11 minutes. Nadal lose the number 1 in the world if Djokovic, who plays Thursday with Federer, wins the tournament for the eighth time.
Nadal says goodbye to the public after the defeat.
The gigantic effigy of Rafael Nadal became unapproachable to Dominic Thiem when he served to win the match. He dominated 5-4 in the fourth set and had the opportunity to win for the first time today number 1 in the world in a Grand Slam tournament, after losing against the last two roland Garros finals. His performance until then had been admirable, but at the first moment of certifying success, his hand trembled: he committed a double fault and sent a very wide right. There was Nadal, the winner of 19 majors, the man who has built his immense legend from an irreducible condition, a fortitude that is unparalleled in the history of this game. Fate was offered again to the Austrian in the tiebreaker, with 6-4 and the first two match balls, again suffocated by the Spanish. He went to the third, which he created with an exceptional passing shot crossed revs blessed by the tape, when he achieved the goal so much time sought. He won 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4), 4-6 and 7-6 (6), in four hours and 11 minutes. Thiem, fifth favorite, is in his fifth semifinals of a Grand Slam, the first outside the Parisian land. Be measured this Friday with Alexander Zverev.
Nadal lets pass the first opportunity to reach the 20 greats of Federer, who will face Djokovic on Thursday for a place in the final of the tournament that is pentacampen. The left-hander also leaves the next week as number 1, because if the Serb is done with his eighth title in Melbourne return Monday to the top.
It was in Melbourne, but it could well have been in Paris, Barcelona, Madrid or any of the places where these two players have faced each other on clay. Also New York, yes, because within their essence of clay players, both know how to operate on any surface. Nadal, for a long time, as evidenced by his extraordinary performance on all surfaces. Thiem has learned his thing. Already on that date, in the rooms of the 2018 US Open, he took Spanish to the limit, to the tiebreaker of the last set, and less than a year ago he obtained on the cement of Indian Wells his only Masters 1000 to date. Sumara Pekn, Vienna and the final of the ATP Finals, all in fast track.
Austrian dynamite
Both adapt their fundamentals as specialists in brick dust to a territory that requires certain adjustments. They have to take a step forward, take the initiative and fine tune with the start punches. Thiem has dynamite on his right and the reverse is not lagging behind, with a spectacular sequence in the execution
More strong head than in the past, partly because of the already 14 clashes with Nadal, including the two lost finals of Roland Garros, leaves a very delicate trance in the first set. He loses his service in white in the eighth game and is 5-3 down and the rest, but saves a set ball and turns his third break ball in the game, fourth in the partial. It equals five and is planted in the tiebreaker, where it returns from an adverse 2-0, after a great start of the left-hander, and takes it.
Nadal poses a difficult demands to assume, especially in the Grand Slam matches. Anyone who intends to tear him down must be at maximum during the time of the confrontation, without a single carelessness or low energy. Thiem knows that in the last final of Roland Garros equal to a set and then collapsed. It is horrible his fifth game of the second set, which yields blank with double foul after two precipitous rises to the net. In the sixth, with 30-30, Nadal suffered a warning for exceeding 25 seconds of truce for the first serve, after an intense rally. “It's amazing that you know that now. You don't like good tennis,” he said, approaching the chair judge. In the eighth, after the Austrian recovered the serve, he addressed the tournament supervisor. After having breakUp in both sets, he was led to a new tiebreaker, which I lost again. This time not even the tape, decisive at the point that defined it, was on his side. Thiem had already had a set ball to the rest, in the game that preceded the tie-breaker
Thiem accumulated winners from any corner of the track. However, in the third set, its percentage of success with the first service fell significantly, while Nadal did not issue any sign of surrender. Break in the tenth game, took the set and prolonged the fight. In the middle of the left-handed return, there was a key moment in the fourth set: he had three break balls that would have placed him 3-1 and serve, with his opponent convalescent of the serious attempt to come back. It was Thiem who took advantage of his opportunity below, placing Nadal at the limit. From there, the most dramatic moments of a match followed that entered the books of the tournament. Thiem got an impossible, ended up defeating his fears and doubled the 2009 champion and four-time finalist of the tournament, a man who at times returned to appear as invincible ..
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