Dominic Thiem admits it wasn’t very nice for him to listen to the announcer itemizing all of Rafael Nadal’s French Open titles simply earlier than their finals and the gang going loopy as that solely made him extra tense than he already was.
In 2018, the Austrian made his maiden Grand Slam closing at Roland Garros.
There, he met the Spanish tennis icon, who routinely dealt with him 6-4 6-3 6-2 for his eleventh French Open title.
The next yr, Thiem put up one other large run on the Parisian Slam and even beat Novak Djokovic en route to creating back-to-back finals.
However as soon as once more, he did not have a solution for Nadal as he misplaced 3-6 7-5 1-6 1-6.
Dominic Thiem and Rafael Nadal© YouTube screenshot
Thiem on what he discovered ‘very irritating’ earlier than his French Open closing vs Nadal
“One of the most frustrating things is when you’re warming up on court just before the match starts and the speaker starts listing all his titles at Roland Garros,” the former world No. 3 said while attending a sponsor’s event.
“The crowd gets crazier and crazier and the noise gets louder and louder. It’s very frustrating for the opponent. It’s actually a wonderful thing because the crowd gets excited and everything goes crazy in an instant.
“We’re playing against an absolute legend of tennis and things like that just reinforce that, but yeah, in the moment I can tell you it’s very frustrating.”
Ultimately, Thiem by no means once more made a closing at Roland Garros whereas Nadal completed with a file 14 French Open titles.
Whereas the Austrian did not handle to change into a Grand Slam champion in Paris, he averted ending his profession and not using a Slam after successful the 2020 US Open.
In his final season on the Tour in 2024, the Austrian tennis legend solely performed within the French Open qualifying and did not make the primary draw after dropping within the qualifying second spherical.
