ATP: Dominic Thiem beats Rafael Nadal: Aggressively but surely to success

Dominic Thiem turned the world of tennis upside down by winning the quarter-finals of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid on Friday. The 24-year-old not only managed to finish Rafael Nadal’s winning streak on clay, but also helped Roger Federer back to the top of the world rankings.

“I think I played a little better than in Monte Carlo,” said Thiem after his spectacular triumph, and had the laughs on his side at the press conference. Only three weeks ago Austria’s number one lost to Nadal 0:6, 2:6.

Many of the approximately 12,000 spectators in the Caja Magica expected that the Spaniard would once again underpin his supremacy in Madrid. But with aggressive, spectacular play from the baseline and good footwork, Thiem managed to lose two rounds on sand after Nadal won a series of 50 sets in a row.

“I knew that there could be another debacle if I wasn’t there from the beginning,” Thiem explained his approach: “My basic strokes were the best, I really hurt him. At the same time, however, they were very certain that I did not make any stupid mistakes.”

Not least because of his performances against Federico Delbonis and Borna Coric, who already served against Thiem, an increase against Nadal was necessary.

“That was like day and night. I still rarely get such good performances in matches,” said the tournament’s number five. “I should play him like this all the time, maybe at the next tournaments.”

For the first time this week Thiem played a match on the Court Manolo Santana, the biggest square of the course. The rest of the run behind the baseline met the nine-time tournament winner. “There is much more space on the center court, which is pleasant,” Thiem explained.

Since the ball bounces “like crazy” due to the sea level, the World Rankings-7. can drop it there sufficiently to return it at a comfortable height.

In the side seats where he has been in action over the past few days, he looked around at almost every return to take advantage of the full size of the seats and to position himself as far back as possible.

The defeated Nadal, who played his third game on the Center Court, struggled with defeat after the game. “I didn’t read the ball well enough and I rarely got it into trouble,” he said. “He brought a lot of topspin into the balls, and I didn’t open the court far enough with my shots. I didn’t think I could take the punches and I felt uncomfortable all the time, and I must congratulate him on that.”

With his retirement in Madrid Nadal has to relinquish his place at the top of the world rankings for his permanent rival Roger Federer. In order to remain the industry leader, Nadal should not have lost a match up to and including the French Open.

A little Thiem credited his success, which brought great implications, to the fast conditions in Madrid. “The conditions are great for me, I love to play here,” said Thiem, who feels very comfortable in Madrid, while Nadal is “perhaps a little better at sea level”.

The next summit meeting of the two sand court specialists could take place as early as next week. At the Masters in Rome, Thiem and Nadal were drawn into the same quarter again, so another quarter-finals would be possible.

For Nadal, however, there seems to be no reason to worry: “If he beat me three times in a row, then we could say that he can read my game. Today he was just better than me, that’s all.”

For Thiem, however, the Madrid semi-final against Kevin Anderson is on the agenda, against whom he has a real horror record. In six clashes, Günter Bresnik’s protégé always had to step off the pitch as the loser. Out of 14 sets, twelve went to the South African.

“I’m glad I’m going against him on sand for the first time tomorrow,” said Thiem. “It’ll be completely different, his serve works very well up in the air.”

Anderson beat Del Potro conqueror Dusan Lajovic from Serbia 7:6 (3), 3:6, 6:3 early on Friday afternoon. “I try to regenerate myself well and enter the match with the same attitude and aggressiveness,” said Thiem. For him, this is his second Masters 1000 final after last year’s final.