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Dominic Thiem after the 7: 6-, 7: 6 victory against Rafael Nadal in the ATP Finals with a clean slate.
London A great Dominic Thiem has clearly headed for the semi-finals of the ATP Finals. In the group’s second matchup of the season in London, the 27-year-old US Open winner defeated world number two Rafael Nadal after 2:26 hours with 7: 6 (7), 7: 6 (4 ). For Thiem, 26, it was the fifteenth duel with the seven-year-old Spaniard, the first meeting of the two top-3s in the room, the sixth victory. “Overall it was a great match, everything went well,” Thiem said happily at the Zoom press conference. He is particularly happy with his backhand. He trained this a lot during the crown break. “This is really paying off now. These are things that make me very happy because you can see how hard work pays off. “
Although it was the sixth win in nine losses against the 20-time major winner: it still means a lot to Thiem to win against one of the “big three.” “It is still a great privilege to play against these people because they are simply the three best players of all time,” said Thiem Nadal, Federer and Djokovic Rosen. “The more games I play against them, the better it is for my game, because matching them is probably the best training there is.” Especially since Nadal had a great performance. “These games are worth gold for your confidence in yourself, throughout the game, so it was a good day.”
Tennis at the highest level
The actual duel of the London group was high class, balanced and competitive from the start. The long rallies, stops and counter-stops, as well as not a single opportunity to break, meant an almost expected scenario after 57 minutes: a tie-break. In this Thiem was 2: 5 behind and equalized 5: 5, after a double error to 5: 6 made possible the first set of the ball of Nadal. When Nadal failed to seize his second chance at 7: 6, it was Thiem who won the first round after 72 minutes with 9: 7 in the tie break.
Second chance used frozen
In the second set, Nadal seized his second chance and brought Thiem’s serve to 4: 3. But Thiem managed the immediate rebound after a huge rally that, if allowed, would have ripped the crowd from their seats. At 5: 4 and 40: 0, Thiem had three match points, but Nadal defended them. He returned to the tiebreaker. After passing a big backhand along the line to make the 4: 3, Thiem won three more match points at 6: 3, and used the fifth.
“To be honest, I think I played a little higher today than I did at the US Open. That was perhaps my best match since the restart of the tour, ”said the 17-time winner of the tournament.
