Nadal prevails, again, in U.S. Open’s succession battle

Rafael Nadal of Spain yesterday scraped a close 0/6, 6/4, 7/5, 6/7(4), 7/5 (5) win over Austria’s Dominic Thiem in a classic battle that lasted four hours and 48 minutes at the on-going U.S Open in the Arthur Ashe Stadium.

How did Thiem lose the match? How did Nadal survive the threat? Thiem bettered his opponent in all the match statistics.

He served better, delivered more aces (18-3), committed few double faults (4-4), hit more outright winners (74-55), piled more total match points (171-165) and won more games (28-26).

At the finish line, however, only two points separated the players in the fifth set tie break result seven points to five.

The first set score line of 6-0 is a rarity in Nadal’s professional career. Archivists would have to dig way back to find the occurrence.

Although Nadal delivered a higher number of first serves, Thiem won all points on his successful first serves and faced no break threat while he converted three.

It was in this set that Thiem piled up 24 winners to Nadal’s seven, and the top seed committed nine unforced errors to his opponent’s two.