It’s not a great year for Rafael Nadal that will be titleless in May for the first time since 2004.
The King of Clay looked to be in supreme form at the Australian Open before losing to an even better Novak Djokovic in the final. Rafa was widely expected to have one of his triumphant clay court seasons after showing his form on hard court, but he fell short in Monte Carlo where he lost to an inspired Fabio Fognini and now in Barcelona where a fantastic Dominic Thiem defeated him.
Rafa looked flat for most of the tournament in Barcelona also with his movements to fuel more speculations about his fitness.
The match against Thiem
Dominic was at his very best against the Spaniard, and he looked prepared to take advantage of Rafa’s doubts. Eventually, the difference was 1 break per set, but Thiem had 12 break points while Rafa only 3. The King of Clay lost a huge opportunity in the last game of the contest when the Austrian had problems in serving out the match to be 0-40 down. Once again it was Thiem to step in, clinch the following 5 points and win the contest 6-4 6-4 in 2 hours and 4 minutes. Thiem is the guy with the most wins against Nadal on clay now (4). See their H2H.
Thiem will face Daniil Medvedev in the final. Thea head to head is 1-0 for Thiem, but the only time they played was on indoor hard courts in St. Petersbourg (2018) when Thiem won 6-2 3-6 7-6 (2).
HE WON AGAIN!
|
| Embed from Getty Images |
