New York. It began as a nightmare, a humiliation, a disgrace to the greatest fighter known to tennis. 24 minutes had passed and the Arthur Ashe Stadium’s huge scoreboard showed a 6-0 shimmer – it was the devastating, unreal-looking intermediate score from Rafael Nadal’s point of view, in the quarter-final duel with his Austrian challenger Dominic Thiem.
But just four hours later, it was now 2:04 a.m., when Nadal stood as if in a trance on the Centre Court, both hands raised to the sky, in the pose of the gentle triumphant after one of the memorable all-time classics in New York.
It was the ultimate US Open experience that decided the heavyweight fight of the two matadors: A tie-break thriller at the end of a wear battle lasting several hours, a whipped atmosphere with almost hysterical fans – and finally a single bitter mistake by Thiem, a butterball chased out of the field sky at Matchball Nadal, who decided the drama.
0:6, 6:4, 7:5, 6:7 (4:7), 7:6 (7:5) – this is the five-set score after 289 minutes in another cruel jungle heat, with the exhausted, relieved winner Nadal, who openly confessed: “I suffered out there. It went to the border.” And with a disappointed but also proud loser Thiem: “It was the first really epic match of my life. Tennis can be cruel sometimes, just like today.”
Now Nadal will play for a place in the final round against Juan Martin del Potro on Friday – and the chance to win the major spectacle in the Big Apple for the fourth time after 2010, 2013 and 2017.
Thiem scored five points more in this outstanding duel – 171 to 166 – but the last word was given to muscular Mallorcan Nadal, the man who never gives up until the last rally is played. “You have to keep going, no matter how hard it is. Thiem was a great opponent, I’m sorry for him,” said 31-year-old Nadal after one of his most fascinating US Open victories ever.
Fascinating because he was literally rolled over on the first few meters of this duel with Austria’s star Thiem – an experience that otherwise only the opponents of the brawny Spaniard make. “Thiem plays like a dream”, TV expert John McEnroe said at the start of the game, “it’s incredible what’s happening here.”
But if there’s one wisdom that counts against Nadal, it’s this one: It doesn’t matter who runs first. It’s important who finishes first. Because Nadal never despairs, no matter how difficult the circumstances and conditions may be. Also against Thiem he fought his way back into the match with his Never say die attitude, won dominance, suffered a setback in the fourth set, seemed tired at the start of the fifth and last act.
Only to be wide awake and energetic again when it counted, far beyond midnight, against the much younger colleague from Lichtenwörth. The mountain of used, sweaty towels, which stood next to his break bench, seemed like a symbol of his commitment and effort. “There is only one motto: “Go on, go on and on,” Nadal said on Spanish television, “that’s what made and defined my whole career.”
Nadal already had a lot of tennis in his bones before the kick-off of this quarter-final duel. Only in the third round did he master the tough test against the Russian giant Karen Khachanov in four sets, then he needed another four sets to bring Georgian Nikoloz Basilishavili to his knees.
“I’ve played a lot of tennis here on this court,” Nadal said, “and there’s gonna be a little more, I guess.” If Nadal wants to raise his 18th Grand Slam Cup, he would probably have to go into another tennis marathon against the “man of the hour” in the circuit, the re-started Novak Djokovic, in addition to del Potro.