Dominic Thiem Beats Rafael Nadal: Best of Twitter Reactions

It’s done. Rafael Nadal has finally been beaten. After being unbeaten in clay for 50 sets and 21 matches, someone has finally beaten Rafael Nadal at his favorite clay surface. And who better than Dominic Thiem, who even Uncle Toni believed could be the one to beat Nadal. He won 7-5,6-3 to finish the match in two sets itself.

Rafael Nadal had seemed invincible the entire tournament. He lost 5 games in a set only once, wrapping up others in 4 games or less. He won the Barcelona Open and the Monte Carlo Masters in comfortable style. He was in a run of a lifetime. Of course, only until today.

Today he encountered the wall of Dominic Thiem, the person seeded #3 in the tournament, and very well considered the best in man in clay amongst the playing players, after Nadal. In their match today, the third round of Madrid Open, Nadal lost the first set initially 7-5, despite saving a couple of set points before. In the second set, he could never get going. He was initially broken 2-1, but managed to take a game back to level at 3-3. He was beaten again at 4-3 and finally at 6-3 to end his unbeaten run.

This is how Twitter reacted to Nadal’s loss:

He lost to Dominic Thiem last year as well, at the Italian Open. It was his only defeat the entire clay court season. Being the reigning champion of the Madrid Masters, Nadal will no longer remain the World number 1 and pass the baton to Roger Federer who will only rely on Nadal losing the Italian Open in order to clinch on to the position a bit longer.

Dominic Thiem becomes the youngest player to beat Rafael Nadal on clay – a stat that both Nadal and Thiem can be proud of. Nadal will be looking to revenge his loss in next week’s Italian Open and further clinch back the number 1 spot from Roger Federer.