Nadal not losing sleep over Thiem jolt
Spanish claycourt king turns focus to Rome after Madrid loss
Claycourt king Rafael Nadal has played down the significance of his quarterfinal defeat by Austrian Dominic Thiem at the Madrid Open — a loss that ended a year-long winning streak on clay and cost him the world No. 1 ranking.
The 31-year-old Spaniard looked unstoppable going into his Friday clash with fifth seed Thiem, having won 50 consecutive sets on the red dirt, but he was well beaten 7-5 6-3.
Coincidentally, it was Thiem who last beat Nadal on clay, at last year’s Rome Masters, shortly before the Spaniard rampaged to a 10th French Open title without dropping a set.
However, Nadal quickly slapped down any notion that world No. 7 Thiem knows the secret of beating the greatest ever exponent of claycourt tennis.
“Well, three weeks ago I beat him 6-0 6-3. I don’t know if that’s a tough player or not. I don’t think it’s that way,” Nadal, who also beat Thiem en route to the Roland Garros title last year, told reporters.
“I think it has just been a match where he was better than me, same as a few weeks ago I was better than him.
“If he beats me three times in a row, maybe we can say he reads my game and can beat me.”
Top ranking fight
Nadal will now focus on next week’s tournament in Rome where, should he win the title, he could reclaim the number one ranking from great rival Roger Federer who has opted to sit out the claycourt season in preparation for Wimbledon and beyond.
Not that the Mallorcan will lose any sleep over it.
“You cannot be No. 1 when you’ve been not playing for five months,” he said. “I think from Shanghai [last year] till MonteCarlo, I hadn’t finished a single tournament. We’re talking about a lot of months that I gave up.
“This year till now I had only one or two tournaments that I had played. This is the reality of this year. I’m not going to keep the number one today. At the end of the year we will see what happens.
“I think I placed myself in a good position. I am three in the (ATP Race), which is the most important thing. I still have two good weeks on clay, and then I’ll keep on moving forward.”