The King of Clay has lived up to his title so far in 2017.
Rafael Nadal triumphed at his third consecutive tournament and improved to 15-0 on his favorite surface this season by beating Dominic Thiem 7-6(8), 6-4 in the Mutua Madrid Open final on Sunday afternoon.
A wild first set saw Nadal trail by an early break only to get it right back and ultimately play his way into a tiebreaker. Actually it was Thiem who did especially well to force a ‘breaker, as the ninth-ranked Austrian battled out of a 0-40, triple set point hole at 4-5. Nadal eventually saved two set points, himself, before converting his fifth chance when Thiem sent a forehand over the baseline at 8-9.
“Anything could have happened at the end of the first set, but I think I played the important points well,” the Spaniard commented.
This time around Thiem did not go away in the second set, as he had done in last month’s Barcelona final–also a straight-set loss to Nadal. The 23-year-old battled admirably in Madrid, fighting off two championship points to deliver a clutch hold for 4-5. Thiem even earned four break points in a tense final game only to see Nadal finally capitalize on his fourth match point.
Highlights:
“I gave everything that I could,” Thiem said. “But it was a final of a Masters 1000, my first one, against the best player on this surface ever. Sometimes against the best players in the world, you even lose when you play well. That’s the thing in tennis: there’s only one winner.
“How he plays after his serve, it’s unbelievable. He hits so many forehands. You’re under pressure after his serve almost every time.”
“Today is a day to be satisfied, to be happy and to have this trophy,” Nadal concluded. “This is a very emotional period of the season. I really enjoy these tournaments. I just try to go for all of them. I try to compete. I did well in Monte-Carlo and Barcelona, and also here. I hope to do the same in Rome.”
Nadal and Thiem will now head to the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, the second Masters 1000 event in as many weeks. They could face each other again in the quarterfinals.
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congrats
After watching so many of Rafa’s matches, what strike me the most is the different ways he could handle his opponents. Rafa is/was trained from young to be a counterpuncher (or tactical) type of player, even though with all the big weapons that he has, he could well be an attacking/offensive player.
Against different opponents, he uses different strategies. Against Djoko, he knew he just couldn’t rally with Djoko all day, and so he played the aggressor in that match (between these two it’s always the more aggressive player would win); against Thiem, he knew he could out rally Thiem, but by exploiting Thiem’s SHBH, knowing that Thiem had his big serve and big FH which were difficult to counter head on. Rafa also drop shot Thiem to tire him, knowing Thiem played from so far behind the baseline, often made him ran CC to the drop shot, maximizing the distance ran; this might help Rafa gaining the upper hand in the long rallies if Thiem was physically tired from the running.
Against Goffin, who took the ball early and often came to the net to attack, Rafa used his passing shots and lobs, and he himself turning defense into offense. Rafa didn’t engage too much in long rallies with Goffin, he couldn’t anyway as Goffin would shorten the rallies by moving forward.
All in all, a very satisfying and enjoyable plus nervous clay season so far, for all of us Rafa’s fans. Looking forward to a calmer and even more lethal Rafa at Rome. Vamos.
Luckystar, I love reading your analysis of tennis matches. Yes, I could see the difference in Rafa’s style against Djoker and Thiem but I couldn’t have expressed it as eloquently as you did not being a tennis expert. On the other hand, aggressive play always pays off against everyone, so is there any reason why Rafa not doesn’t do that more?
nadline10 says (AT 1:01 PM),
Moya says: “…The team made him [Rafa] notice that he has to be aggressive, there are days where he manages to do it and others where he doesn’t, but he always tries to do it…”
http://www.tennisworldusa.org/news/news/Rafael_Nadal/43354/carlos-moya-is-this-the-best-nadal-difficult-to-say-but-now-he-is-winning-matches-he-used-to-lose-/
I don’t know; I feel that it’s not always possible for Rafa to play aggressive tennis all the time. Perhaps it’s something to do with his confidence level; or maybe he enjoys the cat and mouse kind of tennis more?
I notice that Rafa always talk about fighting out there on the tennis court. He’s one guy who enjoys the tussle, the cracking of his brain to solve problems, the working hard and then enjoys the fruits of his labor; the enjoying the suffering and then tasting the sweet rewards of a win in the end.
If you compare him to Fed for example, Fed is one guy who, imo, wants to beat anyone as comfortably as possible and showcasing his brilliance in the process of doing so. He couldn’t care too much about fighting and suffering, the quicker he finishes and wins his matches, the better.
Rafa on the other hand, enjoys the fight more than the win. He’s one competitive guy who always like to pitch against others, competes with them and beats them; so,he enjoys the process (of competing) more than the win.
Perhaps it’s because Toni knew what Rafa’s character was like since Rafa was young and so he felt Rafa should be groomed into a tactical player more than an attacking player. We often said that if Rafa has a big serve all along, he would’ve won many of his matches easily and quickly instead of having to grind; but, maybe Rafa would lose the joy of competing out there.
As I’ve mentioned, Rafa has different game plans for different kind of opponents. Against attacking players like Fed or Delpo, he plays the counterpunching game; against fellow counterpunchers, he may play the aggressor role, when he has bigger weapons to beat them as the aggressor, e.g. against Murray, Ferrer, Simon and Monfils.
It’s only against Djoko that they may switch role between counterpuncher and aggressor, depending on how they play on the day, who gets the edge from the get go. In fact, in Rafa’s tennis career, his major rival is Djoko, not Fed. Fed is from another earlier gen, but due to his longevity in the sport, his tennis career overlaps that of Rafa/Djoko’s generation and beyond.
VR is better in analyzing the technicalities of Rafa’s game; I think he can explain it better.
Over the years 25 titles worth shared in those last three venues, MC-Barcelona-Madrid, not many can claim such a feat, huh?
The Madrid final became the most watched tennis match on Spanish TV (TVE) since May 2013, it drew 2.6 million viewers:
https://twitter.com/RTVE_Com/status/864027404305661952/photo/1
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Nadal is simply unbeatable on clay. Thiem played a great match, but Nadal was just too good.
If you guys don’t mind, could you visit http://www.courtsidewatch.com? It’s a new and upcoming site, and we’ll have an article on Federer and the French Open up at 11:30 CDT. Thank you so much!
Like I said it came down to confidence. Confidence enables Rafa to play agressive.
Very good article from Tiggy expanding on Rafa’s current run of confidence (no mention of speed anywhere curiously)….
http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2017/05/rafael-nadal-simona-halep-madrid-open-titles-atp-wta-tennis/66056/