The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Nadal marches on but catches glimpse of the future in Austrian
RAFAEL NADAL sensed a changing of the guard despite giving Dominic Thiem a clay- court lesson in their secondround clash at the French Open yesterday.
Twenty-year- old Austrian Thiem is one of the brightest talents in the men’s game but he will know just how far he still has to go after a 6-2 6-2 6-3 loss on Court Philippe Chatrier.
Thiem had his moments and delighted the crowd with his 27 crushing winners, 11 more than his opponent.
But ultimately his 41 unforced errors had the greater impact on the scoreline as Nadal brilliantly dealt with everything thrown at him and sent it back with interest.
Last year the eight-time champion lost sets in both his first two matches but this time he has breezed through and it would be a major surprise if Argentinian Leonardo Mayer detained him for too long in the third round.
Despite the ease of his victory, Nadal was hugely impressed by Thiem and said: “I think that our generation is now on the way out.
“( A n dy ) Murray, (Novak) Djokovic, (David) Ferrer, and ( Tomas) Berdych and others, (Jo-Wilfried) Tsonga, as well, we have been here for a long while.
“A generation is walking away and others will replace us. It will not come overnight, but it will come.”
Thiem really set tongues wagging earlier this month when he beat Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka in Madrid.
That made him the youngest man to beat a top-three player since Juan Martin del Potro in 2009.
Fourth seed David Ferrer, who lost his first Grand Slam final to Nadal 12 months ago, eased through with a 6-2 6-3 6-2 victory over Italy’s Simone Bolelli.
There was also an impressive victory for American Donald Young, who had never won a match at Roland Garros before this year but knocked out
26th seed Feliciano Lopez 6-3 7-6 (7/1) 6-3.
The 24-year-old hails from Chicago like 18-yearold Taylor Townsend, who at her first Grand Slam posted one of the stand-out wins ofWednesday against 20th seedAlize Cornet.
Young next plays Wawrinka’s conqueror Guillermo Garcia-Lopez while there were also wins for French duo Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils, the latter now preparing to meet fellow crowd-pleaser Fabio Fognini.
Meanwhile, there will be a clash of the giants between 6ft 11in Ivo Karlovic and 6ft 8in Kevin Anderson.
In today’s third-round matches, second seed Novak Djokovic has a potentially tricky clash against Marin Cilic while Roger Federer meets Russian DmitryTursunov.