Defending champion Novak Djokovic was sensationally knocked out of Roland Garros after he lost in straight sets to Dominic Thiem in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. The Austrian sixth seed convincingly beat the Serbian World No. 2 7-6(5), 6-3, 6-0.
Going by their rankings and head-to-head history, Djokovic was the clear favourite to reach the semifinals. He had never lost to Thiem in their five past encounters, beating the youngster easily even a couple of weeks ago on clay in the semifinals at Rome.
Thiem, though, excelled on the Parisian clay, breaking Djokovic in the third game of the first set. Djokovic struck back to bag the next three games to lead 4-2.
However, unforced errors, including two double-faults, by Djokovic in the seventh game helped Thiem to even things.
Both held serve after that to take the set to a tense tie-break which Thiem won 7-5, Djokovic committing an unforced error on the second set-point.
The tone for the rest of the match was set in the second game of the second set when Thiem broke Djokovic. Thereafter, the Austrian held serve and breezed through the set winning it 6-3. While the first set lasted 76 minutes, the second took just 39.
Djokovic completely fell apart in the third set, and Thiem duly capitalised to close out the match.
Overall, Djokovic committed 35 unforced errors and struck 18 winners compared to Thiem’s 28 unforced errors and 38 winners.
“It was a bad set, but all in all it was decided in the first set. I lost a crucial break at the beginning of the second set. He started serving better and backing it up with first shot. He deserved to win. He was definitely a better player on the court today,” Djokovic said.
Thiem said winning the first set and beginning the second set well had played a key role in his win.
The 23-year-old now faces fourth seed and nine-time champion Rafael Nadal in the semifinals.
Nadal did not have to break much sweat in his quarterfinal after 20th seed Pablo Carreno Busta retired with an injury trailing 2-6, 0-2.
In the women’s quarterfinals, No. 2 seed Karolina Pliskova defeated No. 28 Caroline Garcia 7-6(3), 6-4. Pliskova will now face third seed Simona Halep who staged a remarkable comeback to beat Elina Svitolina 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-0.
Halep was on the verge of defeat, a set down and trailing 1-5. However, she scripted a stunning recovery to win the second set in a tie-break in which she even saved a match-point.
In the mixed doubles, Rohan Bopanna and Gabriela Dabrowski reached the final, beating third seeds Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Andrea Hlavackova 7-5, 6-3.
