Thiem on a Mission: The Austrian Yearns to Take out Nadal in Paris

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Thiem on a Mission: The Austrian Yearns to Take out Nadal in Paris

By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday March 8 2021

It’s barely March, and tennis is still being played on the hard courts, but that hasn’t kept Dominic Thiem from turning his attention to Roland-Garros. The World No.4, in an interview with Laureus Sport, spoke about his biggest dream this week.

That dream? To defeat Rafael Nadal at his stomping grounds in Paris. Thiem, who has lost all four of his encounters to Nadal at Roland-Garros, owns four wins against Nadal on clay. Only Novak Djokovic (7) has more.

“If somebody wants to win Roland-Garros including me, probably he has to take out Rafa in that tournament,” Thiem said. “It’s probably one of the biggest achievements ever in sports history what he has done there, I guess he’s not finished yet. Last year he was 34 already and he played probably one of the best Roland-Garros tournaments ever for him.”

After reaching the Roland-Garros final in 2018 and 2019, and falling to Nadal both times, Thiem fell in the quarterfinals to Diego Schwartzman last year.

With less than three months to go until this year’s French Open, Thiem is firing up his vision question early, it seems.

“He’s definitely the guy to beat there as well,” Thiem said. “It is one of the biggest challenges, I think, in sports, to beat this guy on this centre court in Roland-Garros, that’s why I really would love to do it when he’s still active.”

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