Dominic Thiem beating Rafael Nadal on clay is nothing new. After all, Thiem accomplished that feat in each of the past two seasons.
Current form, though, suggested there was no way it would happen again on Friday at the Mutua Madrid Open. But it did.
Lightning struck for a third time as Thiem pulled off a 7-5, 6-3 upset during quarterfinal action, becoming just the third player ever to beat Nadal at least three times on clay. The seventh-ranked Austrian broke Nadal’s serve an incredible five times while winning 66 percent of his second-serve return points and prevailing after one hour and 56 minutes.
Highlights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-05EpxHpW98
“I had to play an extraordinary match, and that’s what I did,” Thiem commented. “It takes a really good match to beat Rafa on clay, but I think a very important thing was that I went in with the attitude that I can beat him. Obviously, two weeks ago in Monte-Carlo he killed me love and two. It was very important I went into the match with a positive attitude–with an attitude to win.
“I moved well; I was physically tough. But always against him, there are long rallies. You get out of breath. My groundstrokes were the best; they were very aggressive. I think I really hurt him with them…. I didn’t make too many stupid errors. That was important.”
“Of course I’m upset,” Nadal said. “I tried to come back. I tried to do it a couple of times, but I wasn’t good enough today. He was better than me today, that’s the end of the story. Some days you don’t play as well as you’d like to play. Also, when that happens, it’s because your opponent is doing really well. I just want to congratulate him; that’s all.”
Only Novak Djokovic, Gaston Gaudio, and now Thiem have defeated Nadal at least three times on clay. Djokovic has done it on seven occasions, while Gaudio–the 2004 French Open champion–and Thiem each own three such victories over the Spaniard.
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