Dominic Thiem Beats Rafael Nadal in Australian Open Quarterfinal
Thiem won in a thrilling four sets and will face Alexander Zverev in one semifinal. Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are in the other.
MELBOURNE, Australia — There will be a new-generation men’s semifinal at the Australian Open when Dominic Thiem faces Alexander Zverev for a chance to take on one of the sport’s Big Three for a title.
Attacking and defending brilliantly, Thiem, 26, defeated No. 1 Rafael Nadal in four taut sets on Wednesday night, closing out Nadal by winning three tiebreakers.
Zverev, 22, rallied from losing the first set to outwit and outplay Stan Wawrinka, a three-time Grand Slam champion and another of the game’s establishment figures.
The youngsters, it seems, are getting closer to the elusive prize of a major singles title.
Or are they?
“If you want to have a chance against him, one of the all-time greats, everything needs to work in your game,” said Thiem, the No. 5 seed.Thiem has multiple victories over all of the Big Three and has beaten Nadal four times on clay, Nadal’s preferred surface. But this was his first victory over Nadal in a Grand Slam tournament after losing to him in the last two French Open finals.Both men knew what they were in for. When they faced off on a hardcourt in the quarterfinals of the United States Open in 2018, Thiem pushed Nadal to a fifth-set tiebreaker before losing in 4 hours 49 minutes. Nadal was so spent, though, that he was unable to finish his next match against Juan Martín del Potro. Wednesday’s tussle hinged on Thiem’s ability to recover from adversity and Nadal’s repeated failure to capitalize on openings and opportunities that he normally would have pounced upon.Nadal, who has 19 Grand Slam singles titles, was aiming to tie Federer’s men’s record of 20, but that record is safe at least until the French Open now.Nadal lost the first set on Wednesday despite having a set point on his serve at 5-3. He lost the second set despite being up 4-2 and a break of serve.He also lost it, to a degree, with the chair umpire, Aurélie Tourte, when she called him for a time violation when he was slow to serve after winning a spectacular, extended point in the sixth game of the second set.
Hi. I’m Designer of Blog Magic. I’m CEO/Founder of ThemeXpose. I’m Creative Art Director, Web Designer, UI/UX Designer, Interaction Designer, Industrial Designer, Web Developer, Business Enthusiast, StartUp Enthusiast, Speaker, Writer and Photographer. Inspired to make things looks better.
0 comments:
Post a Comment