In a 24-hour span, Dominic Thiem endured epic Roland Garros highs and lows he called "heaven and hell."
The fourth-seeded Thiem completed his two-day semifinal upset of world No. 1 Novak Djokovic yesterday in one of his biggest career victories.
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Twenty four hours after snapping the Serbian's 26-match Grand Slam winning streak, Thiem fought valiantly but ran out of gas in a four-set loss to world No. 2 Rafael Nadal he called one of his saddest moments.
Nadal became the first player, man or woman, to win the same Slam 12 times.
"That's a unique and also brutal thing, I guess, in our sport, in tennis, that I won six amazing matches," Thiem said afterwawrd. "I beat yesterday one of the biggest legends of our game. Not even 24 hours later, I have to step on court against another amazing legend of our game, against the best clay-court player of all time. That also shows how difficult nowadays it is to win a Grand Slam.
"That's what I meant yesterday. I was feeling so happy, with such a good win, and today, of course I lost. I failed to make my biggest dream in my tennis life come true, so I don't feel that good like yesterday."
Falling in the French Open final for the second year in a row, Thiem's dream is to return to Roland Garros and raise La Coupe des Mousquetaires.
"Even though I didn't win the tournament, still, two years finals in a row, it's nice," Thiem said. "I think that I developed my game. I was also closer than last year in the finals, I have the feeling, I mean, especially in the first two sets.
"So I'm on the right way. And I failed today, but my goal and my dream is still to win this tournament or to win a Grand Slam tournament. I will try my best next year again. I gave everything I had in these two weeks. That's all what I could do. Was not enough at the end, but I went very far."
Photo credit: Manuel Queimadelos — at Barcelona Open BancSabadell – Trofeo Conde de Godo