The confrontation between Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Madrid Open is considered an early final of the tournament. Not disappointing the audience, the two tennis players known as the "King" and "Prince" on clay have dedicated eye-catching matches.
Re-matching Nadal in Madrid, Thiem opened the quarter-final with impressive form, completely different from the weak face he showed more than 3 weeks ago at Monte Carlo. The Austrian actively attacked Nadal, forcing him to move around the pitch. With the effectiveness of right shots, the No. 5 seed concretized the advantage with a break in the 7th game.
Nadal did not give up easily, he demanded a break in the 10th game when taking advantage of the opponent's mistakes. However, Thiem played an excellent defensive player to have another breakthrough in game 11. Don't let the mistake happen again in game 10. The cold-cast Austrian tennis player ended the first set with a 7-5 victory.
Entering set 2, Thiem played more and more excitedly. He soon had a break in game 3. However, Rafa quickly reclaimed the break in game 6 to continue to maintain the balance.
Thiem persistently attacked and his efforts were rewarded with another important break in game 7. Despite his efforts, Nadal could not change the situation against the opponent who was playing brilliantly and was on the bench 3-6 in set 2.
After 2 sets, Thiem paid off his debt to Nadal in Monte Carlo and officially got a ticket to the semi-finals against Kevin Anderson - who had to spend 3 sets (7-6, 3-6, 6-3) to overcome Lajovic.
The final semi-final match will be determined after the remaining 2 quarter-final matches. The third quarter match between Kyle Edmund and Denis Shapovalov and the fourth quarter match between John Isner and Alexander Zverev.
