Rafael Nadal vs. Dominic Thiem is a matchup worthy of a French Open final. Heck, it was the French Open final just last year.
At the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, however, Nadal and Thiem have to face each other in Saturday’s semifinals. That highly-anticipated showdown became a reality on Friday, when Nadal got the best of Jan-Lennard Struff 7-5, 7-5 and Thiem beat Guido Pella 7-5, 6-2.
Nadal served at 75 percent against Struff and fired three aces without double-faulting. The second-ranked Spaniard is now two wins away from a 12th Barcelona title.
“It was a pressure match because he’s a very aggressive player; difficult to be on rhythm with him,” Nadal said of Struff. “I’m happy for the victory, happy to find a way to win that match and I hope to be ready for the semifinals. I’m trying to be focused every single moment because one mistake, and you lose the set against this kind of player. I’m happy the way that I managed it.”
Thiem, who also suffered a surprising loss in Monte-Carlo (to Dusan Lajovic in the third round, while Nadal fell to Fabio Fognini in the semifinals), has raised his level by a considerable margin this week. The fifth-ranked Austrian completely hit Pella off the court–especially in the second set–while crossing the finish line in one hour and 40 minutes.
“It’s always one of the biggest challenges possible in tennis to play Rafa on clay, to play him at the tournament which he won already 11 times, with his own crowd [behind him],” Thiem commented. “So it’s going to be unbelievably tough. But we had great matches in the past, and I think we are both playing quite well so I hope that’s the same case tomorrow. I think we can expect a good match.”
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Thiem looked good