Nadal toppled King of clay comes down to earth
One of the most dominant sequences in modern tennis came to an end yesterday when Rafael Nadal, going for his 26th straight win on clay, was beaten in the quarterfinals of the Mutua Madrid Open.
The man who stopped Nadal’s roll was Dominic Thiem, the 24-year-old Austrian who has become the second-best clay-court player in the world since Novak Djokovic mislaid his mojo last year.
In fact, Thiem bookended Nadal’s 51-week unbeaten stretch on his favourite surface, as he was also responsible for the previous upset, in last year’s Rome quarter-final.
In between, Nadal won 50 straight sets, which broke a surface-specific record of 49 set by John Mcenroe on carpet in 1984.
Thiem took yesterday’s match by an unexpectedly comfortable 7-5, 6-3 scoreline. In doing so, he helped trigger a change at the top of the world rankings on Monday.
Last year, Nadal took the title in Madrid by beating Thiem in the final. Yesterday’s loss thus cost him 820 points, allowing Roger Federer, who is not participating in the claycourt season at all this year, to come back past him to the No1 spot without lifting a racket.
Nadal would have to win in Rome next week to move back to the top.
Like so many clay-court experts, Thiem plays with heavy spin off both wings. Yesterday, it was his one-handed backhand that did much of the damage.
“This week he’s been a very tough opponent,” said Nadal. “This is not a drama,” he added. “I won 50 consecutive sets on this surface. Now I lost. I’m not going to do a lot of things different because of this.”
Meanwhile, the new British No 1, Kyle Edmund, could not continue his eye-catching run, being overpowered by Denis Shapovalov. Edmund is widely credited with one of the biggest forehands on the tour, but Shapovalov matched him on that score, and actually outgunned him on both serves and backhands, striking 10 more winners overall.
There was controversy in Shapovalov’s final service game of the second set, when a spectator shouted out as he tossed the ball up. Edmund did not try to make the return, expecting a let to be called. But the umpire insisted that the serve should stand, and Edmund was clearly disappointed that Shapovalov claimed the point.
The sense of injustice rankled enough for Edmund to respond with successive double-faults. To his credit, he held serve, and then snatched the set on a tie-break. But he was broken in the third game of the decider, and this time Shapovalov held on to complete a deserved 7-5, 6-7, 6-4 victory.