Rarely, if ever, has any opponent played so well against Nadal on the Philippe Chatrier centre court as Thiem did on Sunday. Afterwards he would not be drawn on his Grand Slam title chase with Federer. Nadal rifled a two-fisted backhand just long to hand the levelling set to Thiem. “I had a little drop and he was coming out in the third set like a rocket... full power,” Thiem later said, as he processed the result. Later the Austrian reflected: “It's obviously the most difficult thing in our sport to win one of the four majors.

Source: The Star June 09, 2019 16:22 UTC