With the current suspension of the ATP and WTA Tours, USOpen.org is reliving some of the biggest tennis matches in the tournament's history in photos. In our latest featured match, we look back at the 2019 US Open men's quarterfinal match between Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem. Watch the full match on the US Open YouTube channel.
Tennis fans will not soon forget the instant quarterfinal classic that was held under the lights in Arthur Ashe Stadium at the 2018 US Open. In one of the greatest matches in the history of the tournament—one that was named a Top-10 match of the decade by Tennis.com—three-time champion Rafael Nadal outlasted No. 9 seed Dominic Thiem in an epic four-hour, 49-minute match that was settled in a fifth-set tiebreak and ended at 2:04 a.m.
This rematch of the 2018 French Open final, which was also won by Nadal, was a physical, intense battle that featured aggressive play from start to finish.
“What is important about this match is the level of tennis, the dramatic match. When the things happen like this, the atmosphere and the crowd become more special,” said Nadal after his 0-6, 6-4, 7-5, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5) victory.
Here's a look back, in photos, at this quarterfinal classic between the then-three time champion Nadal and Austrian Thiem.
1989 US Open champion Boris Becker performs the coin toss prior to the epic quarterfinal.
This was the 11th meeting between Nadal and Thiem, but the first on hard courts. All 10 of the pair's previous matches were on clay, with the Spaniard leading their head-to-head series, 7-3.
Thiem was playing in the quarterfinals at the Open for the first time in his career. He had reached the fourth round three times previously, in 2014, 2016 and 2017.
Top-seeded Nadal had defeated Thiem earlier in the year in the French Open men's final for his 17th Grand Slam title.
The now-26-year-old Austrian took the first set from Nadal, 6-0, becoming just the second player to bagel the Spaniard in a set at the Open since Andy Roddick in 2004.
Nadal claimed the next two sets before Thiem hit 19 winners to take the fourth set in 81 minutes.
The Spaniard won the fifth set in a tiebreak to reach his seventh career semifinal at the Open. The world No. 1, who was working on a 12-match winning streak in New York, survived 74 winners from Thiem in the match.
Nadal won 165 total points in the quarterfinal, with Thiem taking 171. The four-hour, 49-minute marathon fell short of the longest match in tournament history—a five-hour, 26-minute battle between Stefan Edberg and Michael Chang in the 1992 semifinals.
"Yeah, it's going to be stuck in my mind forever. Forever I'm going to remember this match, for sure," Thiem said in a post-match press conference. "It's cruel sometimes, tennis, because I think this match didn't really deserve a loser. But there has to be one."
Nadal, who retired after the second set of his semifinal against 2009 champion Juan Martin del Potro, was the only player to reach the semis at all four majors in 2018.
