Thiem bagels Nadal but falls short in New York marathon
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im very sorry for dominic nadal added. hes a close friend on tour a great guy and i wish him the very best he is young and has plenty of time to win tournaments1 austrian dominic thiem became the first tennis player in 14 years to hand a bagel to world number one rafa nadal in a marathon match that ended in nadals favour at 2am new york time on wednesday1 thiem who was doubtful about his capacity to prevail over the defending champion shocked him in the first set by preventing him from winning a game. but nadal fought back to claim the next two sets and the decider winning 0-6 6-4 7-5 6-74 7-651 nadal won just 40 percent of his first serves in the first set as he struggled with the high humidity on the arthur ashe stadium court1 its been a great battle an exhausted nadal said. the conditions were tough very humid for me1 for thiem the defeat will stay with me forever1 thiem who lost to nadal in the french open final but who has beaten the spaniard three times in 10 previous meetings struck 74 winners including 24 with his stylish single-handed backhand to keep the champion under constant pressure1 american andy roddick was the only other player who performed the feat at the same arena in 20041 after nadal roared back to take a 2-1 lead the fourth set went to a tiebreak. thiem raced to a 3-0 lead before nadal fought back but the austrian held his nerve to level the match1 there were no breaks of serve in the deciding set and a second tiebreak ensued. the two were neck-in-neck at 5-5 when nadal carved out a match point with his forehand1 thiems wayward overhead smash handed the match to nadal who stood midcourt with his head thrown back and arms raised in the air in celebration1 thank you very much everybody for staying here tonight nadal said after the four hour 49 minute marathon1 its been an amazing feeling. im playing a lot of hours this year at this beautiful stadium1 next up for the top seed is a semi-final clash with big-serving argentine and third seed juan martin del potro1