Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem are going to play in the semifinal in Barcelona on Saturday at 4 pm.
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal will be chasing his 12th title in Barcelona today when he meets Dominic Thiem of Austria. Nadal win-loss record in 2019 is 17-3. He has reached to the semifinals after beating Leonardo Mayer 6-7 6-4 6-2, David Ferrer 6-3 6-3 and Jan-Lennard Struff 7-5 7-5.
Nadal is not at his best as it is clear from his match with Mayer and Struff where he seemed to be struggling a little bit. He was particularly not happy with the way he played against Mayer but improved against Ferrer. The Spaniard seems to be gaining confidence from the roaring support from his home crowd. This is the 2nd back to back semifinal for Nadal after he lost to Fognini in Monte Carlo 6-4 6-2.
Dominic Thiem
Thiem has 12-6 win-loss record in 2019. He has played 9 matches on clay this year with a 6-3 record. On his way to the semifinals, he has beaten Diego Sebastian Schwartzman 6-3 6-2, Jaume Antoni Munar Clar 7-5 6-1, and Guido Pella 7-5 6-2. Thiem is a terrific clay court player and is very athletic as it was on show in his previous match against Pella.
He is not having a great 2019 with an exception of his title win in Indian Wells, which he termed as ‘unreal’: “It feels unreal what happened in these 10 days. I came with really bad form in all categories and now I’m the champion of Indian Wells. It’s amazing that I did my first big title here on a different surface than clay. I turned a pretty bad start to the season to a very good one.”
H2H Rafael Nadal vs. Dominic Thiem
The head to head is 8-3 for Spaniard. It is not going to be easy for the King of Clay to beat Thiem as he is playing some good tennis in the tournament besides the fact that he has already defeated Nadal 3 time on clay. Nadal has found the Austrian to be one of the toughest to beat on clay. Thiem, on the other hand, commented that he will play aggressive tennis as this is the only way to beat the world No.2.
“I will try the same tactics like I did in Madrid and two years ago in Rome, to be very aggressive, of course. That’s the only way to beat Rafa, to be very aggressive and to play a lot of winners, but of course, here I think it’s a little bit tougher here than in Madrid. Madrid are great conditions for me, a little bit of altitude and I think even though he’s won it five times, it’s not his favorite tournament I guess. But I’ll try similar tomorrow.”
Records are in favour of Nadal, he has never lost a semi-final match in Barcelona yet. In all probability, Nadal should win this match in 3 sets. Whatever the results, the fans can expect an exceptional tennis match today.