A formidable

Dominic Thiem

punished

Rafael Nadal's

indulgence

at the ATP Finals.

The Austrian won 7-6 (7) and 7-6 (4) in two hours and 25 minutes, to achieve his second victory in the London 2020 group and set foot in the semifinals.

Nadal must beat

Stefanos Tsitsipas

on Thursday

to keep your chances of qualifying.

Thiem did not weigh the three match points lost to the rest in the ninth game of the second set.

He walked on with astonishing steadiness, stronger than his adversary on all fronts.

And that's saying a lot when the comparison is made with a tennis player like Nadal.

Less decisive than usual at key moments of the game, both in the tiebreaker of the first quarter, where he had a 5-2 advantage and two set balls, and after achieving his only break, in the seventh game of the second, to yield. his serve next, Nadal gave in to the push of a brutal opponent, who has grown extraordinarily in the best year of his career.

Thiem has achieved this course one of the objectives he had been pursuing: to win a Grand Slam.

He did not do it at Roland Garros, where he has two lost finals, but at the US Open.

Years ago, the news would have been surprising.

Not now.

Since he started working with

Nicolás Massú

and his collaboration just started in the spring of 2019 with the Indian Wells Masters 1000, he has been a very capable player on any surface.

This is how he was aiming weeks before in New York, where he led Nadal to five sets in the 2018 quarterfinals. Last year he stood in the final match of these ATP Finals, which he lost to

Stefanos Tsitsipas

.

His rise reached Nadal before the pandemic, at the last Australian Open: Thiem defeated him in the quarterfinals and had Djokovic with the noose around his neck in the final.

To the limit of risk

After the impressive debut against

Andrey Rublev

, Nadal found himself one of the few rivals who can boast of having beaten him on several occasions and on different surfaces.

Thiem is 9-6 down in the head-to-head, but has credit in his matches against the Spaniard.

Thus the duel moved on narrow margins, with Winer Neustadt determined to squeeze his luck with a sharp game, at the limit of risk at times.

Neither did Nadal lag behind, with less effectiveness in the service than in his first game, but going to the tape as soon as he found a serve that suggested it.

Not a single

break

ball

until the first tiebreaker.

The opening set, which lasted one hour and 15 minutes, was a match in itself, with a

tie break

in which Thiem showed enormous strength of mind.

He was 5-2 down, with two serves from Nadal.

Not only that.

After equalizing at five, he committed a double fault that placed him with the first set point against.

Nadal missed the opportunity with a setback to the network.

The second set point, 7-6, was neutralized by the Austrian with an inverted forehand, the same blow with which he would make, to the rest, his only option, the blow from which he had best supplied himself throughout the intense fight, With which he would save, also, the first possibility of Nadal's break, the first that there was in the meeting, just started the second set.

Something could weigh the memory in the resolution of the

tie breaks

.

Thiem had won all three tiebreakers at the Melbourne meeting to win 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4), 4-6 and 7-6 (6).

He took one of the two who played in the quarters of the US Open in 2018. He had beaten Nadal in four of the last five, as he lost the final in New York.

It was tuning in the short distance.

He did it again in a trance if possible even more delicate, with the weight of the three

match points

that had been lost in the ninth game.

He did not hesitate.

He did what he had done in one of his best games ever.

He played as if his life depended on him.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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