It was touted as the Nadal vs Baby Nadal fixture, as arguably two of the best clay courters took the court in Madrid today.
The world wasn’t ready for the passing of the baton though, as never in the entire clay season did Rafa provide his opponents with even a glimmer of hope.
However, with Thiem you always knew that Nadal would be in for a fight, but it had to stop there, didn’t it? Surely Nadala couldn’t be beaten, but Thiem wasn’t taking the court as a mere participant. He desperately wanted the baton to be passed, and his stroke making ensured that it did.
While, you won’t want to jump to the conclusion that Thiem is probably the better player on clay at the moment, but you could genuinely say that he played the bigger moments better today.
He showed composure, presence of mind and intensity when it came to the crunch situations.
That fearless ball striking proved to be a little too much for Nadal in the end as he succumbed to a straight sets loss to Thiem(7-5, 6-3).
Twitter had mixed emotions after Thiem’s win, some mourning Nadal’s loss while others venerating Thiem as the clay courter who could dominate the coming few years.
Check out the tweets:
50 sets and one year after losing his last set on clay — to Dominic Thiem — Rafael Nadal finally loses another… to Dominic Thiem. 7-5 in Madrid QFs pic.twitter.com/71KxUZq10X
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) May 11, 2018
Rafael Nadal OUT in the quarter-finals of the Madrid Masters, losing 7-5 6-3 to Dominic Thiem. A first defeat for Nadal on clay since losing to Thiem in Rome on May 19 last year.
— Stuart Fraser (@stu_fraser) May 11, 2018
Dominic Thiem has done it! The Austrian is into the semis at the #MadridOpen after a 7-5, 6-3 win over Rafael Nadal. Rafa had won 21 straight matches and 50 straight games before running into the 24-year-old. Thiem has now accounted for each of Nadal’s last two losses on clay. pic.twitter.com/KqrCqFwqyY
— TENNIS.com (@Tennis) May 11, 2018
Roger Federer has not played a tennis match since March 24th but will return to world No 1 on Monday after Rafael Nadal’s defeat in Madrid.
Nadal can reclaim top spot the following week by winning the title in Rome.
— Stuart Fraser (@stu_fraser) May 11, 2018
Side effect of that loss : Nadal loses the world n°1 to Federer. Which doesn’t really matter as he’ll still be seeded n°1 in Paris.
— Carole Bouchard (@carole_bouchard) May 11, 2018
Dominic Thiem beats Nadal 7-5 6-3. Spices up the men’s clay court season but Rafa often has some sort of dip around now and it doesn’t usually affect him come Paris.
— Mike Dickson (@Mike_Dickson_DM) May 11, 2018
First Dwayne Casey; now Nadal on clay. Strange afternoon….
— Jon Wertheim (@jon_wertheim) May 11, 2018
Having won 50 straight, Rafael Nadal loses a set on clay for the first time in 51 weeks, and doubles down by losing the match 7-5, 6-3 to Dominic Thiem in the Madrid QFs.
Roger Federer returns to #1 on Monday.
— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) May 11, 2018
Nadal is beaten on clay, at last.
Well played Dominic Thiem.
And no, it means absolutely nothing ahead of the French Open. The bloke with the 10 (TEN) @RolandGarros titles remains the absolute overwhelming favourite to win another.
— David Law (@DavidLawTennis) May 11, 2018
Fantastic effort by Dominic Thiem to halt Nadal’s superb clay court run.
— Michael Oti Adjei (@OtiAdjei) May 11, 2018
Thiem. ‘This is one of the toughest things in the sport, in his country. It was amazing. Great fun’.
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) May 11, 2018
Lot of credit to Dominic Thiem. Beating Nadal. On clay. In Spain. With that inside-out forehand….@rolandgarros Just got more interesting
— Jon Wertheim (@jon_wertheim) May 11, 2018
Dominic Thiem just done the impossible, it’s such a shame he‘ll lose in the semifinal to Kevin Anderson 🤧
— Esraa ◢ ◤ إسراء (@star_991) May 11, 2018
Dominic Thiem is now joint 2nd in most matches won against Rafa Nadal on clay.
Djokovic – 7
Gaudio, Thiem – 3
Federer, Murray, Ferrer, Fognini – 2Thiem is now the youngest ever to beat Nadal thrice on clay at 24 years of age.#MMOPEN
— Utkarsha Mitra (@u21121997) May 11, 2018
So Rafael #Nadal loses at last on clay at #Madrid in straight sets to Dominic Thiem.
— Sanjay Jha (@JhaSanjay) May 11, 2018
Everyone making Thiem favourite for the title. Remember what happened in his next match last time he beat Nadal, plus he's playing Anderson. This will be a hilarious disaster.
— Henry Breadstick (@henrybreadstick) May 11, 2018
Nadal asked how he’s going to get to Rome… he replies: ‘by plane’
— George Bellshaw (@BellshawGeorge) May 11, 2018
Nadal’s loss means that Federer will return to the top of the rankings on Monday, but will lose it if Nadal wins the title in Rome.
