The Thiem-Nadal Conundrum: Dominic Thiem Reflects on Struggles Against Roland-Garros Rival

Twice beaten in the Roland-Garros final by Rafael Nadal, Dominic Thiem never found the solutions against the Mallorcan Porte d’Auteuil. “I have already won four times against him on clay but he is increasing his level at Roland-Garros. It can be horrible from a certain point of view. You don’t know how to win a point anymore,” he explained.

”I remember a final that you played against him at Roland, said Casper Ruud. You lose the first set 6-3 but I told myself that you couldn’t do better because you did everything well but he had the answers to everything. You still won the second set 7-5, which was very impressive. I would say that Nadal’s tactic is quite simple since he blocks you on your backhand and you can’t do anything about it. He makes the game so difficult.”

In 2022, the Norwegian experienced the same situation during the Parisian Grand Slam final against the master of links. “I faced him in the final when he couldn’t even walk because his foot was anesthetized, it was crazy,” he said. The day before, I told myself, since everyone knew he was injured, that maybe this was the year or never for someone to beat him. In the semi-finals, he had a very difficult match with Zverev, they played for three hours and didn’t even finish the second set. If it had been a little longer, who knows? I saw him the day after the final and he was on crutches, he didn’t even know how to walk.”

2024-03-21 13:33:00
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