One Small Step For Nadal, One Giant Leap For Thiem

For a moment, Dominic Thiem stood still in the centre of the court. Then he made his way slowly towards the net with his head bowed. He was a little dazed. His body was fatigued. His shirt was dripping profusely with sweat. And suddenly he knew what it felt like to get caught on the wrong side of the line after a 4-hour 49-minute tug of war with Rafael Nadal.
He had lost to Nadal before, but never like this. Never after playing so well for so long. Never after daring to take the first set 6–0. Never after striking 74 winners through Nadal’s defences. Never in a fifth set tiebreak. Never after sending the final ball long at 02:04 in the morning.
“It’s going to be stuck in my mind forever. I mean, it’s cruel sometimes tennis, you know, because I think this match didn’t really deserve a loser. But there has to be one,” Thiem said afterwards.
In many ways this was a match that actually transcended the boundaries of victory and defeat. Both men gained something, and both men lost something.
Thiem was the one on the wrong end of the 0–6, 6–4, 7–5, 6–7, 7–6 scoreline, but he learnt so much that was positive about himself in the process. Nadal, meanwhile, advanced to the next round, but not even he could emerge unscathed. He will carry the wounds of this match with him to the semi-finals.
This was the 22nd time in Nadal’s career that he’d played a match lasting more than four hours. It was the first such occasion for Thiem, and maybe that inexperience showed at the end, with one too many unforced errors in the closing moments. But Nadal is as battle-hardened as they come, a force of nature that never relents. Throughout this match he was everything you’d expect: intense, ferocious, forceful.
Even so, the bigger story here was Thiem. Nadal has done this before and he will do it again. He may even win this US Open, in which case this match will take on even greater significance for him. But, for the moment, it’s a match that feels like one small step for Nadal on his long march to greatness, and one giant leap for Thiem at the start of his.
To watch Thiem play as he did was a transformative experience. For so long he’s underachieved when he doesn’t have red clay underfoot. This was his first Grand Slam quarter-final outside of Roland Garros. Before the tournament he’d won just two matches on hard courts against Top 10 opposition in his whole career.
Indeed, he’d been haunted by hard courts. He’d been haunted by these hard courts in fact, fluffing his lines last year from two sets up against Juan Martin del Potro.
And so, watching him lock horns with Nadal was like having an epiphany. “HE CAN DO IT!”
Thiem has always had the tools — a serve which he can hit flat or kick with spin, a powerful backhand which penetrates the court at remarkable pace, and a forehand with which he can boss rallies — but he’s rarely had the correct mindset.
Promisingly, he’d said during the tournament that “I have to move closer to the lines. I’m practising to come close to the baseline, especially on this surface.”
But talk without action is cheap. It wasn’t until he adopted a more aggressive approach to beat last year’s finalist Kevin Anderson that people stood up and took notice. When he replicated it against Nadal, it was an indication that it might now be ingrained in his mind.
Crucially, Thiem can also last with Nadal physically. He’s powerfully built, with much of his strength coming from his gluteal muscles. For anyone wondering why no male teenager has come close to winning a Grand Slam since Nadal in 2005, this match provided incontrovertible evidence of tennis’ brutally physical present and future.
Both players had to put their bodies on the line. Conditions in New York have been sweltering all tournament — the night before Thiem and Nadal took to the court, the humidity reduced Roger Federer to a shadow of his real self. After toiling in the heat, Federer said afterwards that “I was just happy that the match was over.” His exhaustion was visible in the way he bailed on points with an ill-advised dropshot or a suicide run to the net.
Yet Nadal and Thiem ploughed on for almost five hours, lashing the ball explosively every point and producing athletic rallies that defied human corporal limitations. They were examined physically, mentally, emotionally and technically. Tennis is one of the most sensory sports, and the soundtrack to this match was provided by Nadal and Thiem themselves, with their grunts signalling their strain. This was no place for a teenager.
It was clear from the start that this was no ordinary tennis match, either. Thiem was breath-taking in the opening set, pulverising the ball, hitting winners at will and barely letting Nadal win points. 6–0 in 24 minutes.
But the aura Nadal holds over his younger peers was emphasised by the fact that, even when trailing 0–6, you still felt like he would probably win. At the very least, he would not let the hammering continue.
As the contest went on, it evolved into one of the best matches in recent years, possibly ever. At a time when off-court controversies swirl around the tennis world, threatening to further break up the sport and divert attention away from its joys, it was a timely reminder that, when everything is just right, tennis needs no tinkering. It is the best form of reality entertainment.
The match existed in a kind of all-consuming bubble, and those who witnessed it couldn’t help but be engulfed by it, forgetting about what else was happening in their lives and trying to get their heads round the talent, physicality and willpower of these two athletes. The problem is that, if you watched Nadal vs. Thiem, most future matches will seem underwhelming in comparison.
The momentum swung continuously. There were 11 breaks of serve in the match. Both men arguably did enough to win in four sets, but we eventually found ourselves in a fifth.
By the end it was downright absurd how well they were still playing. As the match headed towards the climax it deserved, a deciding set tiebreak, Thiem found himself 0–40 down on serve. Next came an all-time great US Open moment within an all-time great US Open match. He recovered to deuce, and then got to advantage with a ridiculous point that gave off Connors vs. Haarhuis vibes. Thiem threw his weight behind every shot. Nadal defended like only he can. When Thiem eventually won it with a drop volley at full-stretch, he lifted his arm aloft. Nadal led the applause.
There’s a mutual respect between Nadal and Thiem. They are cut from the same cloth — hard workers, powerful hitters, at home on clay courts. “Someone have to win, someone have to lose. But the personal satisfaction when you give everything and you play with the right attitude is the same.” Those were Nadal’s most percipient post-match words, but they could also have come from Thiem’s mouth.
When it was all over, Thiem had won 171 points to Nadal’s 166. But Nadal had won the final one. It was a cruel blow for Thiem, and Nadal was the first to acknowledge his efforts. At the end of the match he made sure to climb over the net and embrace him. Then he simply rested his head on Thiem’s shoulder for a second. They were both tired.

