World number two Novak Djokovic has had his French Open title defence ended in swift fashion, thrashed in straight sets by Dominic Thiem in the quarter-finals.
Poor weather on Tuesday forced the two bottom half quarter-finals to be rescheduled to early last night (AEST), ahead of the other two men’s quarter-finals which were due to be contested overnight.
Sixth seed Thiem entered the French Open as one of the form players of the clay court season, inflicting Rafael Nadal’s only clay court defeat this season by way of a quarter-final victory at the Rome Masters last month.
The Austrian thus emerged as one of the players to watch at Roland Garros, and again he has lived up to expectation, returning to the semi-finals for the second year in a row.
The 23-year-old was given no chance of beating defending champion Novak Djokovic; in five previous meetings against the Serb he had only won one set, at last year’s ATP World Tour Finals.
He had also been on the wrong end of a semi-final, straight sets thrashing by the eventual champion at Roland Garros twelve months ago, and in their most recent meeting, in Rome last month, he won just one game.
But what unfolded on Court Suzanne-Lenglen would be beyond what anyone expected.
Thiem took the opening set in a tiebreak after saving two set points at *4-5 down, and then carried the momentum going forward, taking the second set 6-3 before completely wiping the floor in the third to win it 6-0.
(AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy)
For Djokovic, the defeat completes somewhat of a fall from grace from the top of men’s tennis, the recently-turned 30-year-old having now relinquished all four major titles within the space of the last twelve months.
This time last year, he was celebrating after finally shaking the French Open monkey off his back, and also becoming the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four Grand Slam titles simultaneously.
At that point the Serb had established himself as the most dominant force in men’s tennis, but his poor form over the past twelve months suggests that he needs to hit the refresh button, like Roger Federer has done in recent years, before things get worse.
As a consequence of his straight-sets defeat, his first at Roland Garros since 2009, Djokovic will drop out of the world’s top two for the first time since early 2011, well before he hit his career peak.
Great Britain’s Andy Murray, who was due to play Japan’s Kei Nishikori overnight, will remain world number one regardless of how he fares for the rest of the tournament.
Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka was to face former US Open champion Marin Cilic in the other top half men’s quarter-final.
Back to Thiem, who will now go on to face the King of Clay, Rafael Nadal, in the semi-finals on Friday night (AEST).
The nine-time champion advanced to the semi-finals for the tenth time after his opponent, and compatriot, Pablo Carreno Busta, retired after dropping the opening set and trailing 0-2 in the second.
The 20th seed complained of an abdominal injury at the end of the opening set, and, after going down a break in the second, decided he could not continue.
He had come off an exhausting five-set win over fifth seed Milos Raonic in his fourth round match, in which the final set lasted 14 games.
Nadal has now spent roughly eight hours on court, and has dropped just 22 games in his five matches to date as he attempts to strike ‘La Decima’ at the tournament where he has made a name for himself over the past decade.
(AFP PHOTO / FABRICE COFFRINI)
Each time the Spaniard has got this far at Roland Garros, each time he has gone on to win the whole tournament.
The 31-year-old will start the prohibitive favourite in his semi-final clash against Thiem, though the Austrian did win their most recent clash in Rome not so long ago.
Their seventh career meeting will once again take place on clay, as was the case for their six previous encounters. Nadal leads 4-2, including winning their only other encounter at Roland Garros in 2014.
With the exit of defending champion Novak Djokovic, the Spaniard has now risen to world number two in the live rankings, and will remain there provided he does not lose to Stan Wawrinka in Sunday night’s final.
In other words, if the final ends up being between Wawrinka and Nadal, the world number two ranking will be decided in that match.
Meanwhile, one women’s semi-final has been set and it will see two players celebrating their birthdays on what is a special day etched in French Open history.
June 8, 1997 was the day Gustavo Kuerten won his maiden career singles title – and first Grand Slam title for that matter – at Roland Garros, and it was also the day first-time Grand Slam semi-finalist Jelena Ostapenko was born.
She will face 30th seed Timea Bacsinszky, who turns 28 today.
Ostapenko, eight years the Swiss’ junior, is aiming to become the youngest Grand Slam finalist since Caroline Wozniacki, whom she defeated in three sets in the quarter-finals, reached the 2009 US Open final as a 19-year-old.
(Tatiana / Flickr)
The Latvian, if she reaches Saturday night’s (AEST) final, will also become the youngest finalist at Roland Garros since Ana Ivanovic in 2007.
Women’s title favourite Simona Halep and second seed Karolina Pliskova were due to face Elina Svitolina and Caroline Garcia in their respective quarter-finals overnight.
Women’s semi-finals – tonight
Jelena Ostapenko (LAT) versus [30] Timea Bacsinszky (SUI)
followed by
[5] Elina Svitolina (UKR) or [3] Simona Halep (ROU) versus [28] Caroline Garcia (FRA) or [2] Karolina Pliskova (CZE)
Men’s semi-finals – Tomorrow night
[4] Rafael Nadal (ESP) versus [6] Dominic Thiem (AUT)
followed by
[1] Andy Murray (GBR) or [8] Kei Nishikori (JPN) versus [3] Stan Wawrinka (SUI) or [7] Marin Cilic (CRO)
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