Nadal hammers Thiem, claims astounding 12th title
French Open: Nadal hammers Thiem, claims astounding 12th title.
The years go by. We get older, and we watch our loved ones do the same. We move through the stages of life, from infancy to adulthood to the hereafter. We love and we lose, we suffer tragedy and revel in triumph. And through it all, Rafael Nadal just keeps winning French Opens.
Nadal defeated Dominic Thiem 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 to claim his astounding 12th French Open title on Sunday. Thiem put up a touch of a fight early on, even claiming a rare set from Nadal, but in the end, he learned again what the rest of the world has long known: There’s no tougher challenge in all of sports than trying to defeat Nadal at Roland Garros.
With the victory, Nadal now has more Grand Slam wins at the French Open alone than almost any other player has everywhere — more than Borg, more than Laver, more than Connors and Agassi and McEnroe.
Nadal had won 11 French Opens coming into Sunday, and in the opening set, it wasn’t hard to see why. Thiem played some of the best tennis of his life, covering every angle and rocketing his devastating one-handed backhand ... and he still ended up losing that first, hour-long set 6-3.
But in the second set, Thiem found life. He and Nadal traded foundation-cracking punches, holding serve after serve. Thiem managed to win the set by the narrowest of margins, 7-5, a remarkable achievement in many regards. It was Thiem’s first set win on clay against Nadal in 10 attempts, and it marked only the second time Nadal has ever lost a second set at the French Open, and the first since 2007.
Thiem reached that mountaintop only to see an entire range still awaiting him. See, beating Nadal in a set at Roland Garros doesn’t intimidate him; it just makes him mad. Nadal broke Thiem on four straight points in the first game of the third set, dusted him in four straight points in the second game, and then broke Thiem again en route to a 4-0 third-set lead. He would go on to win the set 6-1, setting up a decisive and crucial fourth set.
#NadalvsThiem #FrenchOpen #RolandGarros #RafaelNadal #DominicThiem
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