Red Rick
Moderator
Thiem played solid. Usually he loses his head when he's up against a player he can't really figure out, but he was actually for the most part making pretty solid tactical decisions. Problem for him that his execution wasn't good enough even with a solid gameplan, and there's a few things he keeps doing that I'd want him to work on if I were his coach.
But overall Nadal just too clutch and too good. Turns out even the Thiem single hander doesn't like the Nadal moonball if Nadal moonballs higher and deeper. Thiem won in Madrid vs Nadal, but Madrid is at 600m altitude or something and it's always the fastest clay tournamentin Europe. (outside Europe there's Quito which is at 2800m and positively hilarious).
But really tennis needs young talent. Ofcourse Federer and Nadal are exceptional, but even then they shouldn't be dominating at 32 and soon 37. The young 'talents' of today would have been nothing freaking special 15 years ago. I don't consider Alexander Zverev to be more talented than Andy Roddick for example, and he may win 5 to 10 times the amount of Slams due to birth date only.
But overall Nadal just too clutch and too good. Turns out even the Thiem single hander doesn't like the Nadal moonball if Nadal moonballs higher and deeper. Thiem won in Madrid vs Nadal, but Madrid is at 600m altitude or something and it's always the fastest clay tournamentin Europe. (outside Europe there's Quito which is at 2800m and positively hilarious).
But really tennis needs young talent. Ofcourse Federer and Nadal are exceptional, but even then they shouldn't be dominating at 32 and soon 37. The young 'talents' of today would have been nothing freaking special 15 years ago. I don't consider Alexander Zverev to be more talented than Andy Roddick for example, and he may win 5 to 10 times the amount of Slams due to birth date only.