Dominic Thiem could not stop Rafael Nadal: The Austrian lost to Rafael Nadal in the final of the French Open 2018, thus securing his eleventh title in the Stade Roland Garros.
By Jens Huiber from Paris
Rafael Nadal remains king of Paris: The 32-year-old Spaniard took the lead in the ATP world rankings after an intensive match against Dominic Thiem in the Stade Roland Garros on Sunday with 6:4, 6:3, 6:2 and his eleventh title in the French capital.
The match did not start optimally for Dominic Thiem: Nadal scored eight of the first nine points. Thiem managed the important re-break, equalized after 21 minutes to 2:2. Until the tenth game, the serve was served, then a slight backhand volley mistake by Thiems led to the decision in favour of Nadal. 6:4 after 56 minutes for the favourite.
Both players had kept their punches short, had not met at all on Court 3, even though they had started immediately behind each other. Nadal relied on Carlos Moya as always, Thiem completed exactly 22 minutes with a hitting partner.
Thiem had to fight much harder in the further course of the final with his own serve, also gave up his service to the 0:2 in the second round. The audience felt that the Austrian needed support – although Rafael Nadal enjoys home rights on the Court Philippe Chatrier.
Besides ex-champions like Gustavo Kürten, Manolo Santana or Adriano Panatta, ski star Mikaela Shiffrin, the great Zinedine Zidane and Germany’s 2014 World Cup hero Mario Götze also went to Paris. From the middle of the second set they saw a Rafael Nadal who became more and more sovereign. And a Dominic Thiem, who often had to risk too much to score points.
The Lower Austrian made a break in his seventh game, Nadal fought back after a rousing rally – and after 1’50 hours Nadal set 6’4″ and 6’3″, a gap that is hard to catch up under “normal” conditions. The oppressive sultriness in Paris on Sunday did not help either.
Nadal had to digest a frightening moment in the third run when he had a cramp in his batting hand when leading 2:1. He could hardly move his fingers, he called helplessly in the direction of his box.
Strangely, it was Thiem who subsequently seemed insecure, while after a few minutes of restraint and treatment, Nadal marched dominantly and unflinching towards number eleven.
With the fifth match point, the Spaniard completed his 17th Grand Slam title after 2 hours and 42 minutes.