The night Rafa Nadal and Dominic Thiem reached their PHYSICAL LIMITS! 

It's when they both realize in a match like that there are no losers ; both played at the peak of their ability and in that moment they show respect to each other after a grueling battle which pushed them to the limit , which is satisfying for a tennis player to be able to do

Rafa has had so many of these amazing matches over the years. Wimbledon 2008, AO semi's & final 2009, RG 2014, Wimbledon Quarters 2018, USO 2019, AO 2022....A true legend and gentleman.

​@Annice Cooper A lot of the Greatest matches of all time were in the Quarterfinals.

@@jeffreykaufmann2867 agreed, semis too, less nerves about screwing it up at the final hurdle maybe. Fear of winning Rafa calls it.

@@annicecooper8105 why would someone be afraid of winning?

@@jeffreykaufmann2867 it's the term Rafa describes it himself in his autobiography, particularly in relation to Wimbledon '08. I guess the previous two years he had come so close ( esp '07 ).

That’s what legends do

He is the greatest. Cemented into history

Djokovic Broke morr

"medvedev"

Frankly, Thiem Is a very down to earth person, loosing to Nadal Is not smtg that would break his Heart,unfortunately, his body let him down

Yes it is brutal indeed... Another similar is Stanimal, when he's in form.. They say court side his one-arm backhand is quite loud, because he generates much power with it.

can be brutal one day and a huge weakness an other day, 1 hander is almost all the time a weakness. those players need to have an insane Forehand to compensate. Federer included.

​@@pierroulechou pretty much, right now 2 hander is the meta specially on the return aspect of the game, far more consistent and acurate too

1 handlers are all literally extinct on top ranks now. Lol

That's the advantage of 1h backhand, you have more reach/angle and power but has lesser sweet spot hitting zone and requires more preparation which makes it harder to be consistent. In today's game where the courts are slower and ball bounces higher, 1h backhand players would usually be pushed further back to take the ball on the drop. Taking the ball on the rise is risky and difficult, but when Roger changed his game to do that in 2017, he suddenly becomes competitive again and won a few more slams.

Unfortunately for him that just does not look in any way like it's happening at this stage. He never beat the Big 3 in the slam finals. The one final that he won was the worst 5 set slam final of all time.

​@@huzcerthe one against zverev?

The level of Thiem is more or less the same but the actual top is 10 simply too much for him. He still has a great BH but the FH is not enough for the new level of tennis.

lol. his level is not same, its way less then before@@alfiomartins5390

How lucky you were to have been able to experience this amazing event!

"After Nadal won the second I knew it was going all the way." There's no way you could have *known* Nadal would win. It went to a tie-breaker in the fifth set, far from a given!

Both are the most power players on tour for me

This kind of tattles always, always , alwways win Nadal, he is the boss giving 100 physical limits.

The best match of the us open ever!

​@@Luchon20082010 nope 2019 final rafa vs medvedev tops this. Its still an insanw match tho.

@@HoangTruong-vk7ek Djokovic Nadal us open 2011 for me is the best. The rallies were intense.

Exploding the ball

Yup

Refresh our memories 😅

what?

@@TheRafaelBond I know right? this is one of the many reasons I like this guy

I don't think even borg can do that I love this man

@@TheRafaelBond he didnt got angry after the easy error , just got back to playing the next point.

Federer would have smashed it 🔥

It's one of the fastest surfaces in the world

Doesn't mean a thing if he couldn't even make the final.

There was that one time at Wimbledon against Nick Kyrios, when Kyrios slammed a ball at Nadal, Nadal's body didn't really react, but his eyes said "I WANNA KILL YOU!"

and still lose... All next gen can play high lvl tennis but there are unstable and missing big points. Dominic culdnt play whole match like in first set that was unbe.

@@jakubkrupa9493 he did it finally in AO 2020 quarter final but he couldn’t maintain the same level in the finals.

@Chung Yin CHEUNG True mate that he choked. but its Just my opinion that I felt his level was higher in the quarterfinals. His backhands were misfiring in the Final. I rewatched both the matches in QF he had extra energy which is obvious

@Chung Yin CHEUNG But still novak was doing novak things and played clutch tennis

@Chung Yin CHEUNG yeah always from 2-0 and especially 15-40 lol

wow wtf

I still think there were way better matches like Rafa vs Nole AO 2012 even though Rafa failed to put that one away or Rafa vs Nole FO 2013 even though Nole did a massive blunder there.

@@Dark_Voice As far as pure quality this match is up there, but I agree it’s not the best. Especially with it being a QF and Nadal retiring the next match. There’s more important matches out there that had similar quality, like AO 2012 or RG 2013 (speaking strictly the 2010s). This match is underrated though.

@@Dark_Voice these ones, and also Djoker wawrinka AO 2013, federer nadal AO 2017, federer tsonga AO 2013, federer Djoker USO 2011, fed Djoker FO 2011, nadal Djoker Wimb 2018... Plenty of matches at least as good as this one here.

@@user-cy6xl3vd3f Roger vs Rafa AO 2017 or Fed vs Tsonga don't come close to this. Rafa vs Novak Wim 2018 or Fed vs Novak 2011 FO and USO yes, that was crazy level

really? will always win? well he has lost to Paul not too far ago.

@@SendaAngosta everybody lost a tennis match but he will be the best player ever existed, fast, strong, smart and doing plays that only Federer did, a true mind a Warrior, I'm not a NADAL FAN boy but he deserve be the number one before retirement.

@@liveheavyshows no, clearly you're a fanboy. get off his meat.

@@whiterabbit8243 im not a Nadal fan before I hate Nadal always because some things he did on the court but we must to recognize was the player most difficult to beat.

I'm a fedfan, but honestly the most difficult to beat is Djokovic, then Nadal. However in clay... Nadal is just something else

No siempre. Djokovic le ha ganado varios partidos épicos y Federer en el último Australia que ganó también venció en 5 sets.

Thiem 2020 AO and WTF's 2020 would like to have a word with you.

Sure, Thiem reached 4 GS finals and won the last one, he also reached ATP finals final in 2 consecutive years and he won an ATP 1000 tournament and plenty of 250s or 500s. But the Thiem we see for the past few years, even before his wrist injury, is just a bad shadow of him. At times it feels like he doesn't want to play but has to due to sponsor contracts and the like and stuff he says feels more like an excuse for not taking his job more serious. If you look at his play stile, he lacks the power and precision he used to have and became rather impatient and in an attempt to shorten the ball exchange puts in plenty of risk which often backfires. At this moment he is probably his worst enemy by wanting to much and trying to force his way back There have been plenty of players that really struggled to come back to their old form, but they at least could fight for top 40 positions. Thiem currently even struggles against players on the challenger level and just made it to the AO because players in front of him dropped out. You could also see that he gets less and less wildcards offered for tournaments which means he has to go through qualifications. 4 years ago he was in the final of the AO and now he doesn't even receive a wildcard as the organizers of the tournament are confident that he won't get far. That's unfortunately the honest truth. I really would love to see him back in his 2019/2020 form again, but I don't see the fighting spirit he used to have and thus I think videos like these are the only way we can see his real potential.