French Open: Nadal’s departure boosts fast-rising Thiem

Injured Spaniard’s exit brightens 22-year-old’s prospects in clay major

PARIS: Rafael Nadal’s shock Roland Garros exit due to injury has opened the door for several players including one of the rising stars of the game, Dominic Thiem.

The 22-year-old Austrian had been heading towards a last-16 encounter with the nine-time former champion, having lost in straight sets to him last year in a second-round match.

But Nadal’s bombshell announcement that he would be unable to continue playing the tournament due to a left wrist injury changed all that.



Thiem did make it through to the fourth round with a hard-fought 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 win over German teenager Alexander Zverev yesterday, and he has no regrets over not having another crack at the greatest claycourt player of all time on the Philippe Chatrier Centre Court.

“Of course maybe I go different into the match against [Marcel] Granollers than against Rafa, because against Rafa I’m the underdog. Against Granollers, I’m probably the favourite,” said Thiem.

A win over the unseeded Granollers would put Thiem into a quarter-final of a Grand Slam for the first time and give him a good chance of setting up a semi-final meeting against top seed Novak Djokovic.

Long touted as one of the rising stars of the ATP circuit, Thiem has struggled to make his mark in the biggest tournaments, but he feels that much has changed over the last year to improve his game.

Thiem has already won three tournaments this year — at Buenos Aires and Nice on clay and at Acapulco on hardcourt — and he has won the most matches (23) on clay so far this season.

Meanwhile, Andy Murray claimed he knew Nadal was struggling with a wrist injury when he practised with the Spaniard during the build-up to Roland Garros.

“I practiced a bit with him last week and I knew there were some issues with the wrist,” world number two Murray, who is through to the last-16 in Paris, told Eurosport. “He’s won this nine times and was playing really well so for him to withdraw from the tournament, it would have to be a pretty serious injury.”

Seven-time grand slam champion John McEnroe called Nadal’s latest injury “extremely disappointing”.

“We all know how much he wanted [title] number 10 and we were looking forward to seeing play Novak in the semis,” said the American.



Serena battles past Mladenovic

Defending champion Serena Williams needed five match points before downing battling French hope Kristina Mladenovic 6-4, 7-6 (12/10) to reach the last-16 at Roland Garros yesterday.

The top-seeded American, chasing a fourth Paris title and record-equalling Open era 22nd Grand Slam crown, goes on to face Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina for a place in the quarter-finals.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 29^th, 2016.

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