ATP: Dominic Thiem demands the “classic superstar” Rafael Nadal in Monte Carlo

Big game in the quarter-finals of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Monte Carlo: Dominic Thiem challenges ten-time champion Rafael Nadal (2nd match after 11 am, live on SKY and in our live ticker).

Dominic Thiem finished his working day on Court Rainier III on Thursday with an urgent appeal: Please liken your 1st tennis and football club to Instagram, the Austrian wrote to the cameraman after his success against Novak Djokovic.

Whether this led ad hoc to larger rates of increase in the social network could not be determined immediately, the 1.TFC is heading for 2,000 subscribers in any case.

Günter Bresnik, Thiems Coach, has meanwhile enjoyed other things: Despite the long break from playing, the physical condition of his protégé is excellent, also and above all due to the training with the Graz sports scientist Michael Reinsprecht. Thiem’s game had already been formidable in the first set, even though he had lost to the two-time Monte Carlo champion. Much better than the opening match against Andrey Rublev. Oh, yes: serve and setback would have worked very well against Djokovic.

Now Rafael Nadal is waiting. Dominic Thiem faced him four times on sand last year. And won the game in which he, Thiem, actually felt the worst, because he had already felt very tired: in the quarter-finals of Rome. The semi-final of the French Open was a clear matter for the Spaniard, as was the final in Barcelona.

The best match of the two was probably Madrid, when Nadal had to find his best form to defeat the Austrian challenger. Last week Thiem and Nadal trained together, Günter Bresnik considers the world’s number one form to be very good. What the ten-time champion of Monte Carlo also proved against Germany in the Davis Cup.

“Nadal is the classic superstar who increases with every challenge,” Bresnik told tennisnet. “I believe that on clay he will be a power similar to last year.” If Rafael Nadal wants to keep his place at the top of the world rankings, then nothing less than a repeat of the successes of 2017 is required.

Here are Dominic Thiem’s matches against Rafael Nadal

Nadal and Thiem took several weeks off in the first months of the year, now everything is in order for both of them. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have given my OK to Dominic either,” Bresnik continued. Thiem had been free of pain for about two weeks, was of course highly satisfied after his success against Djokovic.

And did not forget the reference to his second great sporting passion and of course not to his first personal one: Apart from the reference to the 1st TFC the greeting to friend Kristina Mladenovic could not be missing.

Here the single tableau in Monte Carlo