“I think that we have two guys who can beat Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros” says coach Patrick Mouratoglou
Follow Us
US Open 2020 champion, Dominic Thiem became the first player to ace the Grand Slam singles crown besides the Big Three since Stan Wawrinka four years ago.
The Austrian divulged to have relieved of a great ail as the victory had come after a close three-time defeat at the finals of 2018 and 2019 French Open against Rafael Nadal and Australian Open 2020 finals to World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, respectively. Eminent tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou believes the same for the 27 year old and looks forward to him bagging more such titles in future.
Theim and Djokovic can outlast Nadal in Roland Garros, says Mouratoglou
In a chat with Tennis Majors, Patrick Mouratoglou stated that the US Open victory will help Thiem in the future Grand Slam matches. “I’m sure that the fact that he has won a Grand Slam will make a switch in his head, and in the future, it might change the outcome of matches in the big stages of the Grand Slams against the big players,” Mouratoglou said.
“The [US Open final] showed how much he cared, how important it was for him, and how much winning a final of a Grand Slam was such a big thing for him. And I feel like now that he has won, he’s going to be relieved and he’s going to play more freely and that’s why I think he’s going to be much more dangerous in the Grand Slams against the top 3,” he added.
Mouratoglou further put forward his belief that Austrian and Serb are capable of ousting the favourite 12-time French Open champion as he heads towards his quest to grab the 13th record extending title.
He said, “I think that we have two guys that can beat Rafael Nadal, which was never the case before. The first one is Novak because I think that Novak is playing the best tennis of his career at the moment. He’s beaten Rafael Nadal several times on clay, many times. Even though Roland Garros always been a different story, he has beaten him so many times and he’s very confident and Nadal is coming to Roland Garros with only a few matches,” he added.
Mouratoglou went on to say, “And then we have of course Dominic Thiem, who is an incredible clay-court player, who has a lot of matches behind him. He has so many matches under his belt so he’s really extremely confident, with winning the US Open, and with a lot of matches, and physically extremely ready.”
Nadal crashed out of the Italian Open 2020 in the quarters, losing to Diego Schwartzman. Novak Djokovic heads for the last step at today’s finals, whereas the Austrian decided to skip the clay court and directly head to Paris for the year’s last major.
Also read: French Open 2020: Major trouble in ‘Paradise Paris’, a day prior to Roland Garros
Stay Updated!
FS Desk
(8024 Articles Published)