Dominic Thiem has finished Rafael Nadal’s winning streak. The Austrian number one defeated the defending champion in two sets at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid. This makes Roger Federer the world’s number one again from Monday.
Dominic Thiem has reached the semi-finals of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid after a sensational performance: The 24-year-old from Lower Austria defeated Rafael Nadal 7-5 and 6-3 and will meet Kevin Anderson from South Africa on Saturday.
After the smooth defeat in Monte Carlo, Thiem coach Günter Bresnik, who will be represented by Galo Blanco in Madrid, complained that his protégé had allowed Nadal’s game to be imposed on him too much and had shown too little initiative himself. This could not be seen in the Caja Magica from the beginning: Thiem kept pulling up the pace with the forehand, risking enormously with the backhand as well.
And was presented with two chances for a break as reward right at the beginning, Nadal could fend off. In the seventh game, the Spaniard sunk a forehand into the net at the start, this time Thiem took advantage of the opportunity to score 4-3 after a terrific rally, and a few minutes later Thiem Nadal had made excellent preparations for the first set point – the forehand shot ended millimetre down. A double and a forehand mistake followed, Nadal remained in the set.
But he also served in his eleventh game. This time it was the defending champion who made too many mistakes. And after 65 minutes, Thiem finished Rafael Nadal’s record series with his first ace: After 50 consecutive set wins on ashes, it was Dominic Thiem again who took a pass from the Mallorcan. As last happened in Rome in 2017.
Two double mistakes by Nadal at 1:1 in the third set opened the door to the next break for Thiem – the number one of the world remained persistent, fending off a total of four possibilities of the Austrian. Thiem used the fifth. And destroyed two chances of Nadal’s re-break with two strong serves. However, the Spaniard managed this for the 3:3.
What did Thiem do? Once again, he got the service of the favourite, who increasingly looked into the box of his coach Carlos Moya in search of help. And Thiem did not miss out on the industry leader, who will only be the world’s number two from Monday: Nadal fended off the first match ball with his own serve and after 1’55” it was a great inside-out forehand ball that brought Thiem into the semi-finals.
In the semi-final, Kevin Anderson is now waiting. The South African won his first quarter-final on the ATP Masters 1000 series in the eleventh attempt. In three sets against Dusan Lajovic from Serbia. Thiem hasn’t won a match against Anderson yet.
Here the single tableau in Madrid