11TH FRENCH OPEN DESPITE LATE INJURY SCARE

game to save a break point.

He saved another two in the 11-minute sixth game, a performance cheered by the crowd who briefly became more animated when glum-looking French football icon Zinedine Zidane was spotted in the stadium.

Despite matching Nadal forehand for forehand, Thiem was undone in the 10th game when three errors handed Nadal the opening set after 52 minutes on court.

A wild, misguided forehand sealed his fate, one of 18 unforced errors to Nadal’s 12 in the set.

In their previous nine meetings, all on clay, the man who took the opening set went on to win the match.

That scenario loomed again with Nadal going to 2-0 in the second set on a fifth break point as Thiem fired another backhand wide.

Thiem wasted a break point in the seventh game as Nadal collected a time violation for taking too long to serve.

The world number one saved it and went on to secure a two sets lead when yet another backhand from the Austrian drifted wide.

Thiem was under the cosh, saving four break points in the first game of the third set before Nadal inevitably broke for 2-1.

Bizarrely, Nadal then halted playing in the fourth game complaining of pain in his left hand and stretching his middle finger. He still won the game anyway before summoning the doctor and trainer courtside.

Whatever the problem, his dominance remained and a love game took him to 4-2 before he eventually sealed victory on a fifth match point when the Austrian fired another backhand long.