By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, June 8, 2018
Dominic Thiem says beating Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros is sport's toughest test, but he has a plan to achieve mission impossible in Paris.
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Staring at sport's summit in Paris, Dominic Thiem has a plan for scaling it.
Beating Rafael Nadal on Roland Garros' red clay has been described as ascending the Mount Everest of sport.
Watch: Thiem Flies Into French Open Final
Watching the king of clay chomp down Juan Martin del Potro permitting just seven games in today's semifinals may have Thiem revising that statement.
Beating the 10-time champion in a Roland Garros final is as daunting as moonwalking up Mount Everest with a loaded racquet bag on your back—any mis-step makes a crash inevitable.
Thiem has defied the terre battue force of nature in the past and believes he has a plan to navigate this massive, major climb.
“[Nadal is] a big favorite against everybody,” Thiem told the media in Paris. “Still, I know how to play against him. I have a plan... I will try everything that my plan [and hope] also going to work out a little bit here and not only in Madrid or in Rome.”
Three career clay-court wins over Nadal means this is not a mission impossible for Thiem.
Though Thiem is the only man to topple Nadal on clay in each of the last two years—snapping the Spaniard's 21-match clay-court winning streak in the Madrid quarterfinals last month after dispatching him in the Rome quarters last year— both wins came in best-of-three set Masters matches.
The 16-time Grand Slam champion champion has won six of nine meetings with Thiem, including surrendering just seven games in a 2017 Roland Garros semifinal thrashing.
Nadal's numbers in Paris are staggering and Thiem knows the first set is vital in the final.
"The thing is that against many, many guys you know they have a little drop (off) at one point, but not Rafa," Thiem told Tennis Channel's Jon Wertheim. "It doesn't matter if he plays one hour or five hours, he won't give you one second to breathe.
"Of course that's even tougher to (beat Nadal) best-of-five. That's why I think it's important to win the first set against him. If you don't do it, it's gonna be a long way."
Both of Nadal's Roland Garros losses—to Robin Soderling in the 2009 fourth round and to Novak Djokovic in the 2015 quarterfinals—came after he dropped the first set. Nadal is 8-2 lifetime when losing the opening set in Paris, including rallying past Diego Schwartzman after losing the first set in the quarterfinals.
The 24-year-old Thiem owns one of the heaviest kick serves in the game a ballistic forehand and whiplash one-handed backhand that he's willing to fire down the line.
Rather than try to outmuscle Nadal playing grip-and-rip tennis for best-of-five sets, Thiem must draw on the subtlety he's shown during this run to his first major final.
The seventh seed must hit the high kick serve to displace Nadal and create court openings for the first strike.
Knowing he'll likely feel the jitters in his first Slam final, Thiem must get off to a fast start, take the first set to apply scoreboard pressure, vary his return position and use the front court at times to prevent the 32-year-old Spaniard from sustaining a corner-to-corner rhythm where he can carve opponents up.
Thiem deployed the serve-and-volley a few times to exploit deep returners in his quarterfinal conquest of Alexander Zverev and semifinal win over Marco Cecchinato. When stretched, Thiem has been angling his slice backhand to extend points and has occassionally produced dipping drop shots.
While the wide serve and first strike has helped Thiem post an ATP-best 35-8 record this season, he has to play with variety and stay close at the start to test Nadal.
"For sure I can take some things from that," Thiem said. "If I want to beat him I have to play that way like I did in Rome and in Madrid. But I'm also aware of here it's tougher. He likes the conditions more here than in Madrid, for sure, and best of five is also a different story. I think also is a good thing that I faced him already twice here."
Center courts in Rome and Madrid are not nearly as expansive as Philippe Chatrier court which gives Nadal plenty of room to roam and run down counterstrikes. That makes it vital Thiem play angles and bring the front court into play.
Completing a historic Paris climb to become the first man to defeat Nadal in a French Open final requires plenty of daring.
"Of course there is pressure especially in Grand Slam finals because I went a very long way now," Thiem said. "I went a very long way here and I don't want to lose the finals otherwise it's not a very nice feeling.
"But on the other hand it's so tough to go all the way in such a tournament. Facing Rafa, I'm not the one who has the pressure."