It was a clay court tennis master class as 22-year old Austrian Dominic Thiem thumped defending champion in Rio, David Ferrer 6-3 6-2.
What Thiem demonstrated in this match is that it is not enough to simply move well on clay to have success on it. Weight of shot proved to be the key difference in this match up.
In addition to Thiem’s long backswings, he also possesses big groundstrokes with a lot of spin on them as well as a big kick serve to compliment them. These types of shots move through the clay much more effectively than flat balls.
Ferrer, while he moves extraordinarily well on the surface, does not posses the firepower to win big on the dirt. There were numerous points where other elite players would have been able to put the ball away for a winner but Thiem was consistently allowed back into the point thanks to his own handy movement and Ferrer’s lack of ability to hit through the clay. He also strikes the ball relatively flat which sets the ball up nicely for big hitters like Thiem.
The number of Roland Garros champions in the past decade can be counted on one hand. Rafael Nadal, undisputed king of clay court tennis, not only moves like a gazelle on court, but he also posses the heaviest forehand of all time that can hit through any slow surface.
Only two men have won Roland Garros since Rafael Nadal first played there, both from Switzerland. Roger Federer, while generally preferring to play on faster courts, learned to add more spin to his groundstrokes as he hit his prime and was rewarded with a Roland Garros title in 2009.
The other Swiss man, Stan Wawrinka was crowned Roland Garros champion last year and bears a strong resemblance to Thiem game-wise. Both have big kick-serves, and heavy groundstrokes that can hit through the slowest of surfaces. The slowness of the court also gives them both more preparation time with their long swings and grips.
Prior to this year, Thiem had only recorded a single top 10 win in his career; back at the Mutua Madrid Open in 2014, he stunned newly crowned Australian Open and Monte Carlo champion Stan Wawrinka 1-6 6-2 6-4. Regardless, this stat has not kept Thiem from taking out a series of big names in the last two weeks.
En route to picking up his fourth career title in Buenos Aires, Thiem stunned defending champion and king of clay Rafael Nadal 6-4 4-6 7-6(4) after saving MP with a brave forehand winner. He also fought off match points against Gastao Elias in the second round, and was forced to play a third set tiebreaker.
Now, with a win over David Ferrer, he notched the third top ten win of his career, all of them coming on the dirt. Within the last year Dominic Thiem has proven himself as a contender to be the next generation’s face of clay court tennis.
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