This is now the second time in two weeks that Rafael Nadal has been eliminated after reaching the semi-finals of the clay court tournaments which has been dominating for more than a decade.
The fans of Tennis saw Nadal getting crushed at the hands of Dominic Thiem by 6-4 and 6-4 at the semi-finals of the Barcelona Open on Saturday. With this win, Dominic Thiem has become the first player after world rank no. 1, Novak Djokovic, to have defeated the King of Clay four times on a clay court.
This loss for Nadal came following his last week’s defeat at hands of Fabio Fognini at the Monte Carlo Masters.
Nadal was trying to add the 12th title to both of these events but ended up getting defeated.
The 17 times Grand Slam champion, Nadal will now be making effort to recover back his dominant clay court performance for the upcoming French Open. He has also won the French Open 11 times in the past.
Nadal called his performance at the Monte Carlo to be one of his worst matches at clay but for this match, he called it to be the one he could really learn from.
Nadal said, “There are certain losses that help you to learn and this was one of them for me. Considering the way I paled, it has been a long time since I played and felt this good on a clay court. Of my last 8 matches on clay, this sit her first match that I have left feeling that this is the level I need to be at and where I can play in a relaxed manner with necessary energy.,”
As for Thiem, with this win, he has set himself a Barcelona open final match against Daniil Medvedev. Medvedev managed to defeat the 4th seeded Japanese star Kei Nishikori by 6-4, 3-6 and 7-5.
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