Austrian tennis player Dominic Thiem defeated the Spaniard Rafael Nadal in two tie-breaks at the Tournament of Champions, and after the second win he may already have a certain semifinals tonight. Thiem will celebrate the procedure if the Greek defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas defeats Andrei Rublyev. The second match of the London 2020 Group will start at 21:00 CET.
The winners of the opening round at London’s O2 Arena, Thiem and Nadal, fought for their second victory for two and a half hours. In the first set, in which he did not have a single breakball, Nadal was closer to success. However, the second player in the rankings did not use two sets against the world three and lost the shortened game 7: 9.
In the second set, they both held the service until the seventh game and were the first to lose him to Thiem, the champion of this year’s US Open. However, Brejk immediately took it back, then wasted three matchwords, but in the end he defeated the clay king Nadal 7: 6 again, this time winning the tie-break 7: 4 after the fifth transformed matchword.
“This was definitely one of the best matches I’ve ever played. A really great match. From the first ball to the last,” Thiem said. “But honestly, I was lucky to win the first set,” he admitted.
Thiem played 37 winning balls with 22 unforced errors, Nadal had a balance of 25/16. For the first time in his career, the 27-year-old Austrian defeated his Spanish rival for the second time in a row, in January he succeeded in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, where they played three tie-breaks in four sets.
Nadal has never won the Champions Tournament and now he needs to beat Tsitsipase on Thursday. In the fifteenth mutual duel and the very first in the hall today, Thiem adjusted the balance to 6: 9. He was also pleased that he at least lifted the spirits of compatriots after today’s tightening of measures against the spread of coronavirus. “I hope people enjoyed it at least a little at home. And for a moment they forgot about the hard times we are going through now,” he added.
Champions Tennis Tournament in London (hard surface, $ 5.7 million grant):
Singles – Group London 2000: Thiem (3-AUT) – Nadal (2-Sp.) 7: 6 (9: 7), 7: 6 (7: 4).
Table:
| 1. | Thiem | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4:1 | 2 |
| 2. | Nadal | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2:2 | 1 |
| 3. | Tsitsipas | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1:2 | 0 |
| 4. | Rubles | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0:2 | 0 |
Doubles – Mike Bryan Band: Krawietz, Mies (3-Něm.) – Kubot, Melo (8-Pol./Braz.) 6: 2, 7: 6 (7: 5).
Table:
| 1. | Koolhof, Mektič | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2:1 | 1 |
| Ram, Salisbury | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2:1 | 1 | |
| 3. | Krawietz, Mies | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3:2 | 1 |
| 4. | Kubot, Melo | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1:4 | 0 |
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