Austrian relishing top contender status at Roland Garros
Dominic Thiem enjoyed one of the biggest wins of his career on Wednesday by defeating Novak Djokovic for the first time in six attempts in their Roland Garros quarter-final. But while the Court Philippe-Chatrier crowd may have been shocked, the outcome was perfectly logical for the Austrian.
“I didn’t play a different game style. I just had a positive winner-error statistic today,” said Thiem. “That’s very important because I think that was never the case against him before.”
The 23 year old has been in top form throughout this tournament, cruising into the final four without the loss of a set. Although the run can already be considered one of the best results of his career, Thiem said his main focus now is avoiding a letdown.
“I have always played a much worse match the following day if I beat a top guy,” said Thiem. “I hope I can improve that.”
.@ThiemDomi downs defending champion Djokovic to reach the #RG17 SFs! Dominic Thiem fait tomber le champion en titre ! pic.twitter.com/U9iKJWbT7k
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 7, 2017
Thiem experienced this the hard way after handing Rafael Nadal his only loss on clay this season in the quarter-finals of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. Mentally and physically depleted, he came back on court 24 hours later against Djokovic and only won a single game.
This time, the situation was reversed. After defeating Djokovic, Thiem will play Nadal for a chance to reach his first Grand Slam final. Nadal leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head 4-2, but the pair have already played three times this year. Nadal defeated Thiem in the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell and Mutua Madrid Open finals before Thiem turned the tables in Rome.
With all six of their meetings coming on clay, there will be no surprises for either player when they take the court again on Friday.
“It’s great for me to be in the semi-finals again and defend that [from last year]. The toughest opponent ever here in Roland Garros is coming on Friday, though. It’s going to be the fourth match against him in five or six weeks, so there aren’t any secrets,” said Thiem. “He’s in his best shape. It’s going to be the toughest match you can imagine.”
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The Austrian is quickly adapting to his relatively new role as a contender for major titles. Thiem consistently found himself in the final weekend of ATP World Tour 250 events last year, but is now accomplishing this in 500-level and Masters 1000 events in 2017. The breakthrough achievements of last year are now results that he knows he can accomplish.
However, Thiem said that he will need to find another gear if he is win to his first Grand Slam title.
“Everything was a new sensation for me last year. I could only win, basically. I think it was a little bit more difficult this year,” said Thiem. “I wasn’t satisfied with the semis last year, but it was still amazing for me. This year, of course I didn’t expect it, but I wanted to go deep. It’s a very different mindset.
“It’s a joke how tough it is to win a slam,” he added. “I beat Novak. On Friday, it’s Nadal. In the final, there is another top star. That’s why it’s a Grand Slam, because winning one is such a tough achievement.”
Spaniard Fernando Verdasco and Serbian Nenad Zimonjic advanced to the Roland Garros semi-finals on Wednesday, beating Brazilian Rogerio Dutra Silva and Italian Paolo Lorenzi 7-6(5), 7-5 in one hour and 47 minutes.
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The win also moves the 41-year-old Zimonjic closer to a career milestone. The right-hander, who turned 41 on 4 June, now has 698 tour-level doubles wins. If he wins the Roland Garros doubles title, he will celebrate his 700th doubles match win. Verdasco/Zimonjic will next meet Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico and Donald Young of the U.S.
Third seed Stan Wawrinka continued his dominance against Marin Cilic in their quarter-final on Wednesday at Roland Garros, cruising into the final four with a convincing 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 triumph.
Wawrinka improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head with Cilic to 12-2 and has won their past eight matches. The Swiss star has prevailed in all five of their meetings on clay, including a victory at Roland Garros in 2008.
Next up for Wawrinka is top seed Andy Murray or eighth seed Kei Nishikori. Murray leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head 10-7, including a victory last year in their Roland Garros semi-final. Wawrinka and Nishikori are even in their FedEx ATP Head2Head at 4-4. The Japanese star has won their past two matches, including a victory this January in the Brisbane semi-finals.
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Wawrinka is through to his third straight Roland Garros semi-final, marking the first time he’s achieved this at a Grand Slam. He has also reached three consecutive Grand Slam semi-finals for the first time in his career. At 32 years, 75 days, Wawrinka is the oldest semi-finalist at this event since Jimmy Connors (32 years, 280 days in 1985).
After a tame start to the clay season that saw him a sport 2-3 record, Wawrinka is on a nine-match win streak on the dirt. He defended his title on home soil in Geneva (d. Zverev), and stormed into the final four at Roland Garros without losing a set.
More: Thiem Shocks Djokovic
The Swiss star stormed to a 3-0 lead in the opening set and hit three consecutive winners to grab the early advantage. He then fired a forehand return winner to clinch an early break at 1-1 in the second set. Although Cilic managed to level the match at 3-3, the remainder of the contest was one-way traffic. Wawrinka won the next eight games and comfortably closed out the match on his first try, hitting a second-serve ace to end the match in one hour and 40 minutes.
The first streak of Nishikori brilliance was over and the Japanese player double-faulted to drop serve at 3-1, and then woefully misjudged leaving a ball that landed well inside the baseline to fall 5-1 down.
Nishikori twice fell a break behind with poor service games in the third set only to hit straight back each time, infuriating Murray, who served for the set at 6-5.
It might have been expected to shift the momentum in Nishikori’s favour, but he played a desperate tie-break and Murray reeled off all seven points.
A brilliant piece of trademark Murray scrambling helped secure the decisive break midway through the fourth set and Nishikori’s challenge was as good as over.
“Come on!” screamed Murray as he broke again for a 5-1 lead before closing out the match with one of his easier service games of the afternoon.
Wawrinka cruises through to the last four
Swiss third seed Wawrinka set up another Paris semi-final with Murray after breezing past seventh seed Cilic in the last eight.
The three-time Grand Slam champion, 32, cruised to a 6-3 6-3 6-1 win against the Croatian in an hour and 40 minutes.
Wawrinka, who won the Roland Garros title in 2015, has still not dropped a set in Paris this year.
He is the oldest man to make the last four since Jimmy Connors in 1985.
“It was perfect today, I’m very satisfied,” Wawrinka said after his 12th win in 14 meetings with Cilic.
Analysis
Russell Fuller, BBC tennis correspondent:
Not a performance which will give Stan Wawrinka a sleepless night, but Andy Murray polished Kei Nishikori off well.
I’ve no idea what will happen on Friday but I will say that Murray is going to have play significantly better if he is going to beat Wawrinka.
Whatever happens, Murray has made greater progress than we thought he would at Roland Garros.
Venue: Roland Garros, Paris Dates: 28 May- 11 June
Coverage: Listen to live radio commentary and follow text coverage of selected matches on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra and online.
John McEnroe described Novak Djokovic’s final-set capitulation at the French Open as “inexplicable” and questioned the 12-time Grand Slam winner’s desire.
The defending champion, 30, lost 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 6-0 to Austria’s Dominic Thiem – losing a love set at a Slam for the first time since 2005.
The Serb is now without a major title after holding all four 12 months ago.
“I don’t recall seeing a time in the last six to eight years when Novak mailed it in,” McEnroe told BBC Sport.
The American, a seven-time Grand Slam singles champion, added: “He basically gave up.”
Djokovic out as Nadal progresses to semi-finals
Relive Djokovic’s defeat against Thiem
Live scores and schedule
Djokovic won just eight points and made 12 errors in the final set of his quarter-final, which lasted 20 minutes.
It was only the ninth time he had lost a set to love in his career, and the first at a Grand Slam since he played Gael Monfils at the US Open 12 years ago.
“It looked in the third set like he just didn’t want to be out there, couldn’t compete any more, and that’s shocking for a guy that’s won as much as he has and prides himself on competition,” added 58-year-old McEnroe.
“It just shows you everyone’s human.
“On paper it was the most interesting quarter but to see it tail off like that is highly surprising.
“If you had told me a year ago, when he was the only guy since Rod Laver holding all four Slams that this is what we’d be talking about now, I’d have told you you were nuts.”
Twelve months on from completing the career Grand Slam in Paris, Djokovic will drop out of the world’s top two for the first time since 2011 in the next rankings.
“For me, it’s a whole new situation that I’m facing,” the Serb said.
“Especially in the last seven, eight months, not winning any tournament, which hasn’t happened in many years.
“I guess you’ve got to go through it, try to learn your lessons and figure out how to get out of it stronger.
“It’s a big challenge, but I’m up for it.”
The 12-time Grand Slam champion alluded to “personal issues” following his shock third-round defeat by Sam Querrey at Wimbledon last year, and injuries then contributed to a drop in form.
Djokovic parted company with coach Boris Becker at the end of 2016 and then the rest of his coaching team, including his long-time confidante Marian Vajda, last month in what he described as “shock therapy”.
He has since been working with Spaniard Pepe Imaz, a former world number 146 who runs a tennis academy based around “peace, love and meditation”, as well as his brother, Marko, a former professional.
“Obviously there have been issues off the court,” said McEnroe. “I don’t know exactly what they’ve been but that’s affected him.
“There’s a let-down [after completing the career Grand Slam] and that’s understandable when you think about it, after you’ve accomplished that you probably have some motivation problems.
“There’s been, I’m assuming, some type of injury issues.
“But all in all, I can’t believe that he seems so lost right now compared to what we saw when he was on top of the world.”
Djokovic’s damning stats from that final set
9th ‘bagel’ of his career
20 minutes long
8 points won
2 points won on return
0 forehand or backhand winners
12 errors made
25% points won on his second serve (3)
Eight-time Grand Slam champion Andre Agassi was added to the team in Paris, although the American was only present for the first three rounds because of prior engagements elsewhere.
“Don’t put Andre in the midst of this,” Djokovic said. “This final set, of course, that’s all me.
“His influence and impact on my game, it’s going to take time.
“It’s not something that comes out in the first week. We have spent seven days together. We just got to know each other.”
The Serb’s next scheduled tournament is Wimbledon, which starts on 3 July, and he generally does not play a grass-court warm-up event, but has not ruled out taking a break.
“Trust me, I’m thinking about many things, especially in the last couple months,” Djokovic said.
“I’m just trying to sense what’s the best thing for me now.
“Obviously, it’s not an easy decision to make, but I will see how I feel after Roland Garros and then decide what to do next.”
Hear more from McEnroe on BBC Radio 5 live Sport from 19:00 BST on Wednesday
Former world number one John McEnroe says defending champion Novak Djokovic “gave up” during his straight-sets French Open quarter-final defeat by Dominic Thiem.
Defending champion Novak Djokovic is out of the French Open following a straight-sets defeat by Dominic Thiem.
The Serbian second seed was second best throughout to powerful-hitting Thiem, losing 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 6-0 in Paris.
It is the Austrian sixth seed’s first victory over Djokovic and he will now play Rafael Nadal in the last four.
Nadal reached the semis after fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta withdrew from their match with an abdominal injury while trailing 6-2 2-0.
Fourth seed Nadal is aiming to win a record 10th title at Roland Garros having become just the fifth man to reach 10 semi-finals at a single Grand Slam in the Open era.
Both matches were delayed from Tuesday because of rain.
Djokovic relinquishes the last of his Grand Slam titles
In 2016, Djokovic won the French Open title to become the first man since 1969 to hold all four grand slam titles at the same time.
Since then, he has lost in the third round at Wimbledon, suffered defeat in the US Open final, and lost in round two at the Australian Open. He has now failed to progress past the last eight in Paris for the first time since 2010.
“The last couple of tournaments I have had some great tournaments and it was unfortunate to finish Roland Garros in this way,” said Djokovic.
“This is a whole new situation for me, not winning a big tournament for eight or nine months – this hasn’t happened for a while.
“All the top players have gone through that and I guess I have to learn lessons and figure how get through. It is a big challenge and I’m up for it.”
He was unable to cope with the power of Thiem, who hit 38 winners – 20 from his dominant forehand – in total to Djokovic’s 18.
The match was a total reversal of the last time the two met, when Thiem managed to win just a single game three weeks ago in Rome.
Thiem demonstrated his appetite for the fight in a brutally physical first set lasting 73 minutes, which Djokovic led 4-2 but a double-fault handed a break back before three terrible backhands gave his opponent the tie-break.
Djokovic’s mental and physical vulnerability was then ruthlessly exposed as Thiem took the second before emphatically sealing the third to love to take the match.
It was first time Djokovic has lost a set to love at a Grand Slam since the US Open in 2005.
“The third set, obviously, nothing was going my way and everything his way. It was a pretty bad set,” added Djokovic. “I think it was decided in the first set, I tried but I lost a crucial break at the start of the second set.
“He deserved to win, he was definitely the better player on the court.”
Nadal brings up his clay century
Tournament favourite Nadal, 31, has won the French Open title on each of the nine previous occasions he has advanced past the quarter-finals.
He has now recorded 100 best-of-five-sets victories on clay from just 102 matches, with his only defeats coming at Roland Garros, to Robin Soderling in the round of 16 in 2009 and Djokovic in the 2015 quarter-finals.
Nadal has also dropped just 22 games through five matches in Paris, bettering his previous low of 25 en route to the last four in 2008.
He broke Carreno Busta four times to take the first set, at the end of which the world number 21 needed a lengthy break to have treatment and bandaging applied to his stomach.
Carreno Busta lasted just two games of the second set before retiring to extend Nadal’s French Open record to an incredible 77 wins and just two losses.
Ryan Harrison of the U.S. and Michael Venus of New Zealand advanced to their first Grand Slam semi-final on Tuesday, upsetting seventh seeds Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Marcel Granollers of Spain 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. Harrison/Venus broke three times and erased seven of eight break points faced during the 91-minute quarter-final.
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They will face 16th seeds and Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah in the semi-finals.
ATPWorldTour.com previews what will be a blockbuster day in Paris
Day 11 at Roland Garros promises to be the most appetising yet for men’s tennis fans. Four quarter-finals. One day. Hours of entertainment.
No. 4 Rafael Nadal (ESP) v. No. 20 Pablo Carreno Busta (ESP), 11 a.m. Court Philippe Chatrier
FedEx ATP Head2Head: Nadal leads 3-0
Can anyone stop Rafael Nadal? The fourth seed has looked like clear favourite to take home his 10th Roland Garros crown and achieve tennis history on Sunday. No man or woman has won a Grand Slam title 10 times since the Open Era began 49 years ago, in April 1968.
This fortnight in Paris, Nadal has yet to drop a set and could hoist the trophy without doing so, as he did in 2008 and 2010. Through his first four contests, the left-hander has lost only 20 games, one game off his best start at Roland Garros, in 2012, when he had lost 19 games through four matches.
He’s been dominant on serve and effective on return, breaking 28 times for an average of seven breaks per match. That’s second only to defending champion Novak Djokovic, but Djokovic has played two more sets, 14, than Nadal’s minimalistic 12.
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Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta likely doesn’t care about those numbers, though. He’s already achieved what he had never done before by reaching the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam, so why not continue the career-best run?
The 25 year old from Gijon has never beaten Nadal and has captured only one set against his elder countryman. But the right-hander had also never beaten his fourth-round opponent, fifth seed Milos Raonic. Yet on his seventh match point, Carreno Busta came through to bring on a fourth FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting with Nadal.
“If I think that I don’t have a chance, I will not play. So for sure I think I have a chance,” Carreno Busta said. “It’s really difficult, because Rafa is maybe the best player on this surface in history, and he’s playing really good, but I will try. I’m playing good. I’m [playing] with a lot of confidence.”
Andre Agassi has left Paris but his time as Djokovic’s coach during the first week of Roland Garros appears to have been well spent. Djokovic, fresh off his run to the Rome final last month, returns to the Roland Garros quarter-finals for the eighth consecutive year and the 11th time overall.
Another victory on Wednesday and Djokovic will reach his 32nd Grand Slam semi-final, catapulting him to second place on the Open Era list. He’ll also climb to second on the all-time Grand Slam wins list.
Grand Slam semi-final appearances in the Open Era
Roger Federer
41
Novak Djokovic
32?
Jimmy Connors
31
Ivan Lendl
28
Andre Agassi
26
Rafael Nadal
25
Pete Sampras
23
Against Thiem, the defending champion Djokovic will have a bank of memories to rely on, or, to be precise, a handful. He’s never lost to Thiem, boasting a 5-0 record against the 23-year-old Austrian in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. The 30-year old’s most dominating win against Thiem also happens to be his most recent: a 6-1, 6-0 thrashing two weeks ago in Rome that had Thiem remarking about his dislike for playing Djokovic.
“It’s really tough for me to play [him] because he doesn’t give me any time. I don’t really like to play against him, because he has a game style which doesn’t fit me at all,” Thiem said after the 59-minute match.
Thiem, however, was been in a similar situation last month, when he successfully ended a losing streak against a Top 5 player. Before the quarter-finals of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome, Thiem had fallen to Nadal in back-to-back finals – at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell and at the Mutua Madrid Open. But when they faced off in the Italian capital, Thiem reversed the streak, upsetting Nadal in straight sets.
The 6’1” Thiem, after reaching the Roland Garros semi-finals last year, will try to match his best Grand Slam performance and become the second Austrian man to reach multiple Grand Slam semi-finals after Thomas Muster.
No. 1 Andy Murray (GBR) v. No. 8 Kei Nishikori (JPN), third on Court Philippe Chatrier
FedEx ATP Head2Head: Murray leads 8-2
For the second time in 10 months, Andy Murray and Kei Nishikori will meet for a spot in a Grand Slam semi-final. Last September, the two battled for nearly four hours at the US Open. Nishikori advanced in New York, breaking Murray at 5-5 in the fifth set to earn only his second win against the Brit. But at the Nitto ATP Finals in London two months later, it was Murray who withstood top-level tennis from Nishikori, coming back from a set down to beat the Japanese during group play.
Murray, who’s trying to reach the Roland Garros semi-finals for the fourth consecutive year, should feel plenty confident when the two meet for the 11th time. At Roland Garros, the Scot has strung together four consecutive wins for the first time since March, when he won the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships title.
The 30-year-old Murray has also seemingly solved his clay-court woes. In one week at Roland Garros, Murray has doubled his clay-court win total this season. He entered the fortnight with a 4-4 record on the red dirt.
Nishikori, following an injury-plagued clay-court beginning, will try to recreate his aggressive US Open play and advance to the Roland Garros semi-finals for the first time. He would be only the second Japanese man to make the semi-finals in Paris (also Jiro Satoh, 1933). Nishikori also reached the quarter-finals in 2015 before falling to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in five sets.
Day 11: Murray & Wawrinka could meet in the SFs again – but Nishikori & Cilic are formidable obstacles. Read: https://t.co/GHzWRNqRD1 #RG17 pic.twitter.com/TbtJYTMNNv
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 6, 2017
No. 3 Stan Wawrinka (SUI) v. No. 7 Marin Cilic (CRO), third on Court Suzanne Lenglen
FedEx ATP Head2Head: Wawrinka leads 11-2
The last time Marin Cilic beat Stan Wawrinka, neither of the players had won a Grand Slam or an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title. It was 2010 on hard courts in Melbourne. The good news for Cilic: the win came at a Grand Slam. The bad news for Cilic: He hasn’t been able to beat Wawrinka in any of their past seven FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings.
The 28-year-old Croatian will try to end the seven-match losing streak when he and Wawrinka play for the 14th time. Cilic will also try to reach his first Roland Garros semi-final. The right-hander is making his debut appearance in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros.
But Wawrinka has not played in a very welcoming way thus far in Paris. The right-hander answered everything Gael Monfils tossed at him during their quarter-final. Through his first four matches, Wawrinka has dropped only 47 games, the fewest games he’s lost en route to a Grand Slam quarter-final since the 2015 Roland Garros, when Wawrinka won the title.
Cilic should have at least one advantage, though: He should be fresher. Cilic has spent less than six hours on court during his first four matches, compared to Wawrinka, who has clocked more than nine hours of court time.
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Andy Murray might have come into the French Open in awful form for a World No. 1 but he has at least reversed that to some extent…