Dominic Thiem’s 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (4) defeat of defending champion Rafael Nadal in the Buenos Aires ATP 250 semis was yet another breakthrough on the Clay for the 22 year old. The Tennis Review gives you five points about the win.
Thiem saved a match point
Fifth seed Thiem displayed his fighting qualities from the very start of the match against the top seed all the way to the final set tiebreaker.
The youngest member of the ATP’s top 20 came back from being broken in the first game of the match and then showcased his fine clay court skills to take the first set 6-4.
In the second set, Thiem was broken while serving to stay in the set at 4-5 and the match was level at a set all.
Thiem did not let Nadal grab the momentum, though. The 22 year old broke Nadal at the start of the third set, and then held serve to lead 2-0, but he could not hold on to the break as Nadal held serve and then broke back for 2-2.
In the third set, Nadal, with Thiem serving to stay in the match at 4-5, held match point. At that point, Thiem once more showed his fighting qualities. The 22 year old had played with great confidence and authority in the contest and displayed those qualities once more on the biggest point of the match as he struck a huge forehand winner to keep his chances of reaching the final alive.
This was Thiem’s first win over Nadal
Thiem then stayed with Nadal all the way to a third set tiebreak. Nadal handed Thiem a mini-break on the first point as he double-faulted, but the 22 year old did not need any more helping hands- Thiem served effectively and continued to strike the ball with great depth, pace and aggression to overwhelm the error prone and nervy Spaniard and race into a 6-1 lead.
Nadal, serving, saved the first two, and Thiem could not convert the third as he went for too much on a forehand down the line and sent it long.
On his fourth match point, Thiem served out wide with a lot of top spin, stepped inside the court, struck the forehand on the rise cross-court, moved up to the net, and watched as Nadal’s forehand passing shot attempt went long.
That gave Thiem his first win over Nadal and leveled the head to head at 1-1 (the Spaniard won their previous match in the Roland Garros second round in 2014).
This is not Thiem’s first win over a top 10 player- he beat then reigning Australian Open Champion and recent Monte Carlo winner Stan Wawrinka in the Swiss’ opening Madrid match in 2014.
Thiem has now won 13 of his last 14 clay matches
Thiem winning ATP clay court matches is nothing new- the Austrian won his first ever title on clay in Nice last year, and then in the Summer won Umag and Gstaad back to back before going down in the semis of Kitzbuhel to eventual champ Philipp Kohlschreiber.
That rich run of play, along with his general consistency on other surfaces, have helped Thiem rise to 19 in the rankings, and he hit a high of 18 on 2015.08.10.
Nadal is 6-3 for 2016
The loss means Nadal, who was beaten by Fernando Verdasco in the first round of the Australian Open, is now only 6-3 in 2016 despite being ranked 5 in the world and having played at a slam he has won and been to the final of, and playing at a clay tournament where he was defending champion. This poor start to the year comes as a surprise after what had been an encouraging run at the end of 2015.
Thiem is now 9-3 for the season
Thiem, on the other hand, has been having a great start to 2016. He made the semis of Brisbane, where he beat Marin Cilic before losing to Roger Federer, reached the Australian Open third round where he was defeated by David Goffin, and is now in his first final of the year.
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