2018 US Open Quarter-final - Rafael Nadal (1) vs Dominic Thiem (9)

Who wins?

  • Nadal in 3

    Votes: 20 21.3%
  • Nadal in 4

    Votes: 30 31.9%
  • Nadal in 5

    Votes: 7 7.4%
  • Thiem in 3

    Votes: 8 8.5%
  • Thiem in 4

    Votes: 16 17.0%
  • Thiem in 5

    Votes: 12 12.8%
  • Paire in 4

    Votes: 5 5.3%
  • Thiem's first serve stats

    Votes: 7 7.4%
  • Basilashvili

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • MichaelNadal

    Votes: 1 1.1%

  • Total voters
    94
  • Poll closed .

Bender

G.O.A.T.
Nadal has played like 13 hours of tennis in the last 3 matches including more than 4,5 hours today. If a well rested Del Potro can't beat this Nadal then he's a total mug. He will never get a better chance again.

Depends on Rafa as well let’s be fair.

If Rafa is the one moving the ball around Delpo could feel it too. If Delpo comes out swinging making Rafa defend and do all the running, easy win for Delpo. At 32 he isn’t winning two gruelling five setters back to back.
 

Keizer

Hall of Fame
Depends on Rafa as well let’s be fair.

If Rafa is the one moving the ball around Delpo could feel it too. If Delpo comes out swinging making Rafa defend and do all the running, easy win for Delpo. At 32 he isn’t winning two gruelling five setters back to back.

He literally almost did at Wimby...
 

Federer and Del Potro

Bionic Poster
Thanks buddy.. these Nadal matches haven't been easy on me this USO. My work-life-sleep balance has been thrown completely out of gear. Matches have been so exciting it is double whammy. First you spend hours watching matches and then since matches are exciting you spend more hours discussing :-(.

But guess this all is worth it :)

That was me too LOL. I was falling asleep right before the TB. Then after the match adrenaline kicks in...and discussion of the match...2 hours later here I am still.

But that's why I love tennis.

Gut tells me the Nadal Djoker final is imminent but who knows.

Regardless Nadal has done his fans proud again with serious clutch factor. Khachanov and Thiem were chomping at the bit big time for monumental wins but were denied.
 
T

Tiki-Taka

Guest
Del Potro, Djokovic, Khachanov, Thiem

And I missed most of the action in all of Nadal's Slam matches against them this year. :oops:

Hopefully Nadal can perform well in the semifinal as well. He's spent a lot of time on the court in New York already.
 
D

Deleted member 756486

Guest
Next Gen is starting to depress me. I banter about them a lot but I really want them to succeed.

Useless social media addicts.
 

Gary Duane

Talk Tennis Guru
I just looked at the stats. Every stat favors Thiem in this match except net points won. He had a higher percentage of service points won, higher percentage of return points won, 15 more aces, higher break point conversion, etc. He even had 19 more winners and only 8 more errors. He just didn't win the points that mattered. Astonishing that he let this slip away.
Yes, but this is NOT new, and I talked about it earlier this year. I predicted it would change, but I think it has not. There is a mathematical relationship between points won and games won. If that ratio is low or high, it shows either very clutch play or failure to turn points into games.

Both Schwartzman and Thiem were neck and neck earlier this year, both winning around 40% of points on return, but Diego was winning around 28% of his games, but Dominic only around 25%. This is a problem in HCs.

And it's gotten worse and the stats may fall more after this week. Right now the ATP is showing 39% of points on return, which should be no lower than around 25% of games, but he is at 22%. Then check his BP%. He is 4% lower than points. That should be even or a bit higher, 1 to 2%.

This pinpoints poor shot selection, leading to poor BP conversion, leading to lower % of games. Thiem doesn't know how to end important points. There remains a serious coaching problem that needs to be worked out.
 

Federer and Del Potro

Bionic Poster
Anti RAFA trolls the second Thiem missed MP:


See you again Friday

i
 

NoleFam

Bionic Poster
Yes, but this is NOT new, and I talked about it earlier this year. I predicted it would change, but I think it has not. There is a mathematical relationship between points won and games won. If that ratio is low or high, it shows either very clutch play or failure to turn points into games.

Both Schwartzman and Thiem were neck and neck earlier this year, both winning around 40% of points on return, but Diego was winning around 28% of his games, but Dominic only around 25%. This is a problem in HCs.

And it's gotten worse and the stats may fall more after this week. Right now the ATP is showing 39% of points on return, which should be no lower than around 25% of games, but he is at 22%. Then check his BP%. He is 4% lower than points. That should be even or a bit higher, 1 to 2%.

This pinpoints poor shot selection, leading to poor BP conversion, leading to lower % of games. Thiem doesn't know how to end important points. There remains a serious coaching problem that needs to be worked out.

All good points. He plays low percentage on big points instead of working the point and waiting for the right shot to pull the trigger. His shot selection was really poor at times in this match.
 

Mind Doctor

Rookie
Delpo already lost he doesn't know it yet. He will win first set and everyone on here be like Rafa is done. He is tired. He should retire. Then Rafa wins second set in tie break then everyone will say yes but Rafa is tired from other matches and he won't hold up look he's tired. Then Delpo will win 3rd set and people be like Rafa needs to retire he's done, then Rafa be like winning fourth set and people be like yea but he played 5 set match and is tired he can't do this he's old and weird then Rafa just wins then they say he will be to tired for Novak. And like that is it.
Nadal might never tire, but neither do you. How many more posts with this endless innuendo? :oops:
 

Mind Doctor

Rookie
No problem.

4th round against Nishikori - 3h 24m
Super easy and short match against Zverev that took 1h 20m
SF against Wawrinka - 3h 5m
2 days off
F against Nadal 3h 38m

Now let's see Nadal so far at the US Open:
3rd round - 4h 25 m against Khachanov
4th round 3h 23m against Basilashvili
QF - 4h 54m against Thiem

I'm predicting a 4h 20m match against Del Potro and a 5h final against Djokovic btw.
Please... Fed's match times can't be compared to Nadal's match times on an equal basis. Fed barely takes any time between points. Fed is also 5 years older, and Nadal is conditioned to withstand this because he trains like he plays. Not to mention that Nadal and Fed have different physical qualities.
 

Red Rick

Bionic Poster
Delpo would still have to beat a Djokovic/Cilic on the other side. And Thiem probably should have beaten him here last yr so that match is pretty 50/50 as well had he won.

Even if Delpo gets by Nadal, he's not the favorite.

I don't really base my rooting interests off of Del Potro. I don't have the belief he can win 7 Bo5's in one tournament. And that belief is well founded behind a lot of evidence.

And unlike the vast majority of Fed fans on here I don't root for "lesser" players to make my favorites path easier. Beat the best to be the best.
I don't think Delpo's problem is endurance. I think its that he's generally a lesser player than the guys he loses too.

And now I'm not sure that's the case. I did not watch the entire match, but I think Delpo can take Nadal
 
And who is to say Nadal wouldn't have forced a fifth set if he had gone down 2-1???

Not picking on you but the amount of negativity in this thread towards a guy who laid it all out there is absurd. They both had chances to win and that made this a classic. One moves on...that is the nature of the sport.

Nah man...
the strategies which theim was applying in 1st set, if he had continued that, the match would not have even gone to 4th set...
He started grinding after 1st set which ultimately costed him the match.
Still he could have won, but choked 3rd set
 

Mind Doctor

Rookie
Indeed. And he hasn’t exactly had an easy route thus far, he really SHOULD have found that 5th set to be far too much, physically.

Yet he did not. The man is defying convention in that area.
How many male players do you see with Fed's endurance at 37 years of age? The same can be said of Djokovic, especially 2011-2 Djokovic. These guys defy convention, all of them.
 

Tennisgods

Hall of Fame
How many male players do you see with Fed's endurance at 37 years of age? The same can be said of Djokovic, especially 2011-2 Djokovic. These guys defy convention, all of them.

Indeed, but winning multiple 4 hour plus matches in a NY heatwave? At 32 years of age? He should have been spent in that 5th set, amazing that he wasn’t.
 

weakera

Talk Tennis Guru
I re-watched it before replying.


He was mid-way b/w the baseline and the service line.
he went further back after he had made contact.

but again a fail at avoiding the actual point, which is that he should have let it bounce in the first place if he wasn't that confident about taking it on the full.
that's what useless,weak era posters like you do, anyways. :D

You're trying way too hard here kid. It was far from an easy smash and allowing it to bounce would have resultied in an even FARTHER striking position for Dominic, perhaps beyond the baseline depending on his timing, something you would realize if you understood the game.
 

clayqueen

Talk Tennis Guru
Less than 24 hours is exaggerated, because it was on Friday and the final on Sunday (both at the same time). So let’s say about 43 hours or so.

But I agree with you that it won’t affect Rafa very much for the Del Potro match.
Yes, I knew 24 hrs wasn't exactly accurate but the sentiment is the same.
 
D

Deleted member 756486

Guest
Don't want to pre-empt anything but AO 2009 comes to mind when Rafa played that marathon against Nando in the SF less than 24 hrs before he beat a well-rested Fed in the final.

I kept wishing I had a crystal ball to see the end because every shot was killing me.
That was nearly 10 years ago. Rafa is older now.

I still don’t think it will effect him that much but he’s not the same animal he once was.
 

Nostradamus

Bionic Poster
This has been stuck in my mind all night... WHO is the girl sitting next to Kiki Milenovic in Thiem friend's box ?? she was super hot
 

Ledigs

Legend
Oh my god ! I had to go to sleep and so glad I did because there is zero chance my nerves could have handled a fifth set tiebreaker ! Vamos


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

maxrenn

Legend
Well I only saw the last 3 sets but what an incredible match! Props to both players they bring out the best in each other.
 

icedevil0289

G.O.A.T.
thiem lost on a smash?! sigh. tbh and it has been said time and time again, this is what separates the top guys from the rest (for the most part). another match where the loser won more points, but the winner won the most important ones.

yeah I wish I was wrong, but I don't think del potro has many chances and for all the nadal is exhausted...he'll have rest and guarantee you it won't be nadal looking like he is about to fall over.
 

reef58

Semi-Pro
Full respect to Nadal and Thiem for that match, to play like that in those conditions is NOT easy. They left everything out there, sadly only one can win, but this is why we look forward to grand slam matches. We can only get such sensational emotional rollercoasters whether ending in triumph or heartbreak at the slams. Thiem did a lot better than I expected, I said he was going to give hell to Nadal, but even I did not expect that.

Kudos to Nadal for surviving. An absolute legend. Question now is how much more is left in him, Del Potro will be a massive challenge.

I admit I was guilty, but go back to all of the weak draw posts regarding Nads. That flew out of the window. 3 Beatings in a row.
 

mikeeeee

Professional
The lost generation strikes again.

Fed was beating post prime Sampras and Agassi on the biggest stages in his early 20's. These guys can't beat the aging big 3 in the same scenarios.
 
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