2018 Roland Garros

DAY 13 MEN’S NOTES

Friday 8 June

Semifinals

Featured matches

No. 1 Rafael Nadal (ESP) v No. 5 Juan Martin del Potro (ARG)

No. 7 Dominic Thiem (AUT) v Marco Cecchinato (ITA)

A look at the semifinalists…

Player	Country	Age	Ranking	Best Roland Garros performance	Best Grand Slam performance
No. 1 Rafael Nadal	ESP	32	1	W 2005-08, 2010-14, 2017	16 titles
No. 5 Juan Martin del Potro	ARG	29	6	SF 2009, 2018	W 2009 US Open
No. 7 Dominic Thiem	AUT	24	8	SF 2016-18	SF 2016-18 Roland Garros
Marco Cecchinato	ITA	25	72	SF 2018	SF 2018 Roland Garros

On court today…

Dominic Thiem and Marco Cecchinato take to Court Philippe Chatrier in the first semifinal today in their first Tour-level meeting. No. 7 seed Thiem is contesting his 3rd Grand Slam semifinal and is bidding to become just the 2nd Austrian man to reach a Grand Slam final after Thomas Muster. Meanwhile, No. 72 Cecchinato is aiming to become the lowest-ranked Roland Garros finalist since 1999, having not won a single Grand Slam match before this tournament. If he can keep his remarkable run of form going, he will become the first Italian man to contest a major final since his countryman Adriano Panatta won the title here 42 years ago, and given the calibre of the players he has defeated to get to this stage – including 2016 champion Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals – he will be confident of springing yet another upset.

Rafael Nadal faces Juan Martin del Potro in the second of today’s semifinals, with the world No. 1 looking to reach an unprecedented 11th final here and become just the 2nd man in the Open Era to reach 11 finals at the same Grand Slam event – equalling Roger Federer’s tally of 11 Wimbledon finals. Nadal has won 23 of his 26 Grand Slam semifinals, but Del Potro is the most recent player to have defeated the Mallorcan in the last 4 at a major, conceding just 6 games when he stormed to a semifinal victory over Nadal before going on to lift the trophy at the 2009 US Open. Del Potro also holds the record for most victories over a world No. 1 by a player never to have been ranked No. 1 and will record his 10th victory against a No. 1-ranked player if he wins today.

1 RAFAEL NADAL (ESP) v NO. 5 JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO (ARG)

Head-to-head: Nadal leads 9-5

2007 AMS Miami Hard (O) R16 Nadal 60 64

2007 Roland Garros Clay (O) R128 Nadal 75 63 62

2007 Queen’s Grass (O) R32 Nadal 64 64

2009 Indian Wells-1000 Hard (O) QF Nadal 62 64

2009 Miami-1000 Hard (O) QF Del Potro 64 36 76(3)

2009 Montreal-1000 Hard (O) QF Del Potro 76(5) 61

2009 US Open Hard (O) SF Del Potro 62 62 62

2011 Indian Wells-1000 Hard (O) SF Nadal 64 64

2011 Madrid-1000 Clay (O) R16 Nadal w/o (hip)

2011 Wimbledon Grass (O) R16 Nadal 76(6) 36 76(4) 64

2011 Davis Cup (WG-FR) Clay (I) R4 Nadal 16 64 61 76(0)

2013 Indian Wells-1000 Hard (O) FR Nadal 46 63 64

2013 Shanghai-1000 Hard (O) SF Del Potro 62 64

2016 Rio Olympic Tennis Event Hard (O) SF Del Potro 57 64 76(5)

2017 US Open Hard (O) SF Nadal 46 60 63 62

A 15th meeting for the pair, their 5th at a Grand Slam, their 3rd on clay and their 2nd at Roland Garros. Nadal leads 3-1 in their meetings at the majors and has won both of their clay court meetings – including in the 1st round here 11 years ago.

Nadal has a 23-3 win-loss record in Grand Slam semifinals – and Del Potro is one of the 3 men to have beaten Nadal in the last 4 at a major, along with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (2008 Australian Open) and Andy Murray (2008 US Open). Del Potro’s 62 62 62 victory in the semifinals at the 2009 US Open is Nadal’s worst Grand Slam defeat in terms of games won.

Nadal is facing an Argentinian player for the 3rd time at this year’s Roland Garros, having already defeated Guido Pella in the 2nd round and Diego Schwartzman in the quarterfinals. Del Potro faces a Spaniard for the 2nd time here this year, having defeated Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the 3rd round.

This is the 6th meeting between a Spanish player and an Argentinian player in the men’s singles at this year’s Roland Garros. The Spanish player has won on 4 occasions – with Fernando Verdasco defeating Guido Andreozzi and Pablo Carreno Busta defeating Federico Delbonis in addition to Nadal’s 2 victories against Argentinian opponents – while Del Potro’s victory against Ramos-Vinolas is the only occasion this year that an Argentinian player has defeated a Spanish player.

In total, this is the 104th match-up between an Argentinian player and a Spanish player in the men’s singles here in the Open Era, with Spanish players leading Argentinian players 60-43.

Nadal is aiming to extend a 10-match winning streak against Argentinian players, having not lost to an Argentinian player since falling to Del Potro in the semifinals at the 2016 Rio Olympic Tennis Event. He has a 16-1 win-loss record against Argentinian players at the Grand Slams and a 74-15 win-loss record against Argentinian players at Tour-level overall.

Del Potro has won 6 of his last 7 matches against Spanish opposition, with his only defeat to a Spanish player in that time coming against Roberto Bautista Agut in the final at Auckland this year. He has a 13-7 win-loss record against Spanish players at the Grand Slams and a 39-26 win-loss record against Spanish players at Tour-level overall.

Nadal and Del Potro are in joint-3rd place on the list for most Tour-level match-wins in 2018. Only Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev have recorded more Tour-level match-wins this year.

2018 Tour-level match-wins

Dominic Thiem

Alexander Zverev

34-8

34-9

Juan Martin del Potro

Rafael Nadal

28-6

28-2

Fabio Fognini

25-13

Possible final head-to-heads

	Thiem	Cecchinato
Nadal	6-3	0-0
Del Potro	4-0	0-0

NADAL v DEL POTRO

32 Age 29

6’1”/1.85m Height 6’6”/1.98m

1 ATP Ranking 6

78 Titles 22

16 titles Best Grand Slam Result Won 2009 US Open

235-34 Career Grand Slam Record 84-32

84-2 Roland Garros Record 19-7

901-187 Career Record 412-162

413-36 Career Record – Clay 79-31

28-2 2018 Record 28-6

24-1 2018 Record – Clay 7-2

19-11 Career Five-Set Record 7-9

3 Comebacks from 0-2 Down 2

220-140 Career Tiebreak Record 146-103

5-1 2018 Tiebreak Record 9-5

Road to the Semifinals

NADAL	Time		Time	DEL POTRO
d. (LL) Simone Bolelli 64 63 76(9) d. Guido Pella 62 61 61	2:57 2:03	1st round 2nd round	2:07 1:55	d. (WC) Nicolas Mahut 16 61 62 64 d. Julien Benneteau 64 63 62
d. No. 27 Richard Gasquet 63 62 62	1:58	3rd round	2:18	d. No. 31 Albert Ramos-Vinolas 75 64 61
d. Maximilian Marterer 63 62 76(4)	2:30	Round of 16	1:59	d. No. 9 John Isner 64 64 64
d. No. 11 Diego Schwartzman 46 63 62 62	3:42	Quarterfinals	3:50	d. No. 3 Marin Cilic 76(5) 57 63 75

total time on court	13:10	(IDS time)	12:09	total time on court

10-time champion NADAL is bidding to become just the 2nd man in the Open Era to reach the final at one Grand Slam event on 11 occasions. Roger Federer, who has reached 11 Wimbledon finals, is the only man in the Open Era to have achieved the feat.

Nadal is bidding to reach his 24th Grand Slam final and extend his lead over Novak Djokovic in 2nd place on the list for most Grand Slam final appearances in the Open Era.

Most Grand Slam final appearances (Open Era)

Player	No. of appearances
Roger Federer	30
*Rafael Nadal*	*24??*
Novak Djokovic	21
Ivan Lendl	19
Pete Sampras	18

Nadal is bidding to reach his 11th Roland Garros final and extend his record for most final appearances at Roland Garros in the Open Era.

Most Roland Garros final appearances (Open Era)

Player	No. of appearances
*Rafael Nadal*	*11??*
Bjorn Borg	6
Roger Federer Ivan Lendl Mats Wilander	5 5 5

Nadal is bidding to record his 236th Grand Slam match-win today. By recording his 234th Grand Slam match-win in the round of 16, he claimed sole ownership of 3rd place on the list for most Grand Slam match-wins ahead of Jimmy Connors. Only Federer (332 Grand Slam match-wins) and Novak Djokovic (244) have won more matches at the majors.

Nadal is contesting his 450th Tour-level clay court match today. He is the 11th player in history to contest 450 Tour-level matches on clay. He has a 413-36 win-loss record on clay and is 4th on the list for most Tour-level clay court match-wins in history – behind Guillermo Vilas (631-159), Manuel Orantes (453-138) and Thomas Muster (426-127).

Nadal has never lost in the semifinals here. He has won all 10 of the semifinals he has contested at Roland Garros en route to the title in 2005-08, 2010-2014 and 2017.

Roland Garros is Nadal’s most successful Grand Slam in terms of match-wins, titles won and finals reached.

Grand Slam	Titles won	Win-loss record	Finals reached
Australian Open	1	55-12	4
Roland Garros	10	84-2	*11??*
Wimbledon	2	43-10	5
US Open	3	53-10	4

By reaching his 27th Grand Slam semifinal, Nadal claimed sole ownership of 5th place on the list for most Grand Slam semifinal appearances in the Open Era, ahead of Andre Agassi. Federer (43), Connors (31), Djokovic (31) and Ivan Lendl (28) are the only men in the Open Era to have reached more Grand Slam semifinals.

By reaching his 11th Roland Garros semifinal, Nadal extended his record for most semifinal appearances at Roland Garros in the Open Era, ahead of Djokovic (8), Federer (7), Bjorn Borg (6) and Mats Wilander (6).

By reaching the semifinals here for 11th time, Nadal became just the 3rd man in the Open Era to reach 11 semifinals at a single Grand Slam event. Federer and Connors have both achieved the feat at 2 of the majors.

Players to reach 11 semifinals at a single Grand Slam event (Open Era)

Roger Federer

14 Australian Open semifinals

13 Wimbledon semifinals

Jimmy Connors

14 US Open semifinals

11 Wimbledon semifinals

Rafael Nadal

11 Roland Garros semifinals

By losing the first set of his quarterfinal against Diego Schwartzman, Nadal’s streak of 37 consecutive completed sets won at Roland Garros ended. He surpassed his previous longest streak of 32 consecutive completed sets won here in 2007-09 in his 3rd round victory against Richard Gasquet. Only Borg, who won 41 consecutive sets here in 1979-81, has recorded a longer streak of consecutive sets won at Roland Garros.

Nadal is bidding to equal Margaret Court’s all-time record for most singles titles at the same Grand Slam event. Court won 11 Australian women’s singles titles between 1960 and 1973. (see Preview page 1)

Nadal is bidding to further extend his record for the most men’s singles Grand Slam titles at any one event. He won the title here in 2005-08 and 2010-14, making him the only man in history to have won 5 titles in a row at Roland Garros, before winning his 10th title here last year, defeating Stan Wawrinka in the final. He did not drop a set during the tournament – the 3rd time he had won the title here without dropping a set.

By defeating Maximilian Marterer in the round of 16, Nadal became the 5th man in the Open Era to record 900 Tour-level match-wins. Only Connors (1,156 Tour-level match-wins), Federer (1,149), Lendl (1,069) and Vilas (940) have won more Tour-level matches.

By winning his opening 5 matches here, Nadal improved to a 109-2 win-loss record in best-of-five-set matches on clay. His only defeats came at Roland Garros – in the round of 16 in 2009 (l. Robin Soderling) and the quarterfinals in 2015 (l. Djokovic).

Nadal is the leading performer in Roland Garros history. He has an 84-2 win-loss record at Roland Garros, ahead of Federer (65-16), Djokovic (63-13) and Vilas (58-17). This is Nadal’s 14th successive Roland Garros and his 52nd appearance at a major.

Nadal is one of only 3 players to have won multiple clay court titles this year along with Thiem and Alexander Zverev. He won his 11th titles at both Monte Carlo-1000 (d. Kei Nishikori) and Barcelona (d. Stefanos Tsitsipas). He also won the title at Rome-1000 (d. Alexander Zverev), but lost to Thiem in the quarterfinals at Madrid-1000.

Nadal has a 24-1 win-loss record on clay so far this year. Only Dominic Thiem (25-5) has won more Tour-level clay court matches in 2018. Nadal’s defeat to Thiem at Madrid-1000 ended his 21-match winning streak on clay, during which he set the Open Era record for most consecutive sets won on a single surface with 50, surpassing John McEnroe’s 49 consecutive sets on carpet in 1984.

Nadal is bidding to win his 57th career clay court title at Roland Garros. By winning his 50th clay court title at 2017 Monte Carlo-1000, he set an Open Era record for the most career clay court titles ahead of Vilas (49).

Also in 2018, Nadal reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, where he retired in the 5th set of his match with Marin Cilic due to a right leg injury. He withdrew from Acapulco, Indian Wells-1000 and Miami-1000 as a result of the injury.

Nadal is seeded No. 1 at Roland Garros for the 4th time in his career. He was also seeded No. 1 here in 2009, 2011 and 2014. It is the 3rd consecutive Grand Slam where he has been seeded No. 1 and the 12th time overall that he has been the No. 1 seed at a major.

Nadal returned to world No. 1 for the first time since July 2014 in August last year. Since then, he has remained at No. 1 for all but 5 weeks, when he was overtaken by Federer. He dropped to No. 2 after losing in the quarterfinals at Madrid-1000, but regained the No. 1 ranking after winning the title at Rome-1000. He must successfully defend his title here to remain at No. 1 when the new rankings are published on Monday 11 June.

Nadal has played Davis Cup for Spain since 2004. He won both his rubbers as Spain defeated Germany 3-2 in the World Group quarterfinals in Valencia in April and has a 29-5 overall win-loss record in the competition. Spain will play France in the semifinals in Lille on 14-16 September.

Nadal is coached by Carlos Moya, who won the title here in 1998, and Toni Nadal.

DEL POTRO is bidding to reach his 2nd Grand Slam final and become just the 3rd Argentinian player – man or woman – in history to reach multiple Grand Slam finals.

Most Grand Slam final appearances by an Argentinian player (all-time)

Player	No. of appearances
Guillermo Vilas	8
Gabriela Sabatini	3
*Juan Martin del Potro??*	*2??*
Guillermo Coria Gaston Gaudio David Nalbandian Mariano Puerta	1 1 1 1

Del Potro is bidding to become the 5th Argentinian player – man or woman – in history to reach the final at Roland Garros. Guillermo Vilas (1975, 1977-78, 1982), Guillermo Coria (2004), Gaston Gaudio (2004) and Mariano Puerta (2005) are the only Argentinian players to reach the final here.

Del Potro is looking to become the 53rd man in the Open Era to reach multiple Grand Slam finals. Marin Cilic, who reached his 2nd Grand Slam final at 2017 Wimbledon, is the last man to reach multiple major finals.

Del Potro is bidding to become the first non-European man to reach the final at Roland Garros since Puerta in 2005. He became the first non-European man to reach the last 4 here since both Del Potro and Fernando Gonzalez of Chile reached this stage in 2009.

By reaching his 2nd Roland Garros semifinal, Del Potro has equalled his best performance at Roland Garros. He also reached the last 4 here in 2009, where he lost to eventual champion Roger Federer in 5 sets. It was his first semifinal finish at a Grand Slam.

Del Potro has a 1-3 win-loss record in Grand Slam semifinals – he has a 1-1 win-loss record in US Open semifinal appearances, but has lost the only semifinals he has contested at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. (see table overleaf)

Del Potro’s Grand Slam semifinal appearances

Grand Slam	Opponent	Result
2009 Roland Garros	Roger Federer	l. 36 76(2) 26 61 64
2009 US Open	Rafael Nadal	d. 62 62 62
2013 Wimbledon	Novak Djokovic	l. 75 46 76(2) 67(6) 63
2017 US Open	Rafael Nadal	l. 46 60 63 62
*2018 Roland Garros*	*Rafael Nadal*	??

If Del Potro reaches his 2nd Grand Slam final here on his 20th appearance at a major since reaching his first Grand Slam final, he will go 2nd on the list for most attempts before reaching a 2nd Grand Slam final in the Open Era.

Most attempts before reaching a 2nd Grand Slam final (Open Era)

Player	1st Grand Slam final	2nd Grand Slam final	Attempts before reaching 2nd final
Michael Chang	1989 Roland Garros	1995 Roland Garros	21
Juan Martin del Potro??	2009 US Open	*2018 Roland Garros??*	*20??*
Todd Martin	1994 Australian Open	1999 US Open	19
Mark Philippoussis	1998 US Open	2003 Wimbledon	14
Cedric Pioline Michael Stich	1993 US Open 1991 Wimbledon	1997 Wimbledon 1994 US Open	13 13

If Del Potro wins his 2nd Grand Slam title on his 20th attempt since winning his first, he will go top of the Open Era list for most attempts before winning a 2nd major title. Marat Safin, who won his 2nd Grand Slam title after 14 attempts, currently holds the record for most attempts before winning a 2nd major title in the Open Era.

Del Potro is bidding to become the first No. 5 seed to reach the final at Roland Garros since Robin Soderling finished runner-up here in 2010. He would become the first No. 5 seed to reach the final at a Grand Slam since Andy Murray finished runner-up at the 2011 Australian Open.

Roland Garros is Del Potro’s joint-2nd-most successful Grand Slam in terms of match-wins. He has reached one Grand Slam final and won one Grand Slam title – at the US Open in 2009.

Grand Slam	Titles won	Win-loss record	Finals reached
Australian Open	0	19-9	0
Roland Garros	0	19-7	*1??*
Wimbledon	0	17-8	0
US Open	1	29-8	1

Del Potro is bidding to record his 10th victory against a world No. 1 and become the 7th man to record 10 victories against No. 1-ranked players since world rankings were introduced – after Boris Becker (19 victories against world No. 1s), today’s opponent (19), Novak Djokovic (12), Andy Murray (12), Andre Agassi (10) and Federer (10).

Del Potro holds the record for most victories against No. 1-ranked players by a player never to have been ranked No. 1. He has a 9-11 win-loss record against world No. 1s and a 1-5 win-loss record against world 1s at the majors.

Del Potro is looking to record his 20th Roland Garros match-win and equal David Nalbandian in 3rd place on the list for most Roland Garros match-wins by an Argentinian man.

Most matches won by an Argentinian man at Roland Garros (all-time)

Rank	Player	Roland Garros win-loss
1.	Guillermo Vilas	58-17
2.	Gaston Gaudio	21-9
3.	David Nalbandian	20-8
4=	Juan Martin del Potro Martin Jaite	19-7 19-9

Del Potro is bidding to record his 85th Grand Slam match-win and close the gap on Nalbandian in 2nd place on the list for most Grand Slam match-wins by an Argentinian man.

Most Grand Slam matches won by an Argentinian man (all-time)

Rank	Player	Grand Slam win-loss
1.	Guillermo Vilas	139-45
2.	David Nalbandian	86-36
3.	Juan Martin del Potro	84-32
4.	Juan Ignacio Chela	46-42
5.	Guillermo Canas	41-31

By reaching his 2nd semifinal here, Del Potro became the 5th Argentinian man in history to reach multiple semifinals at Roland Garros. Vilas (4 Roland Garros semifinals), Jose Luis Clerc (2), Coria (2), Enrique Morea (2) and Nalbandian (2) are the only other Argentinian men to reach multiple semifinals here.

By reaching his 5th Grand Slam semifinal, Del Potro has equalled Nalbandian in 2nd place on the list for most Grand Slam semifinal appearances by an Argentinian man. Vilas (12 Grand Slam semifinals) is the only Argentinian man to have reached the last 4 at the majors more often.

By reaching the semifinals here, Del Potro will at least equal his career-high ranking of No. 4 for the first time since February 2014 when the new rankings are published on Monday 11 June – and could rise to a career-high ranking of No. 3 if he wins the title. He returned to the Top 10 for the first time since August 2014 after reaching the final at Auckland this year, and plays here at No. 6.

Del Potro’s best Grand Slam performance is winning the 2009 US Open (d. Federer). He has reached at least the quarterfinals at all 4 Grand Slams.

Last year here, on his first Roland Garros appearance since 2012, Del Potro reached the 3rd round, falling to No. 1 seed Murray in straight sets.

Del Potro is competing at his 5th consecutive Grand Slam event – his longest streak of Grand Slam appearances since he appeared at 9 straight majors in 2011-13. This is his 8th Roland Garros and his 34th major overall.

Del Potro warmed up for Roland Garros by reaching the 3rd round at both Madrid-1000 (l. Dusan Lajovic) and Rome-1000, where he retired in the 2nd set against David Goffin due to a leg injury.

Del Potro’s best result in 2018 is winning the title at Indian Wells-1000 where, as No. 6 seed, he defeated Federer to win his first Masters-1000 title. He also won the title at Acapuldo (d. Kevin Anderson), reached the final at Auckland (l. Roberto Bautista Agut) and the semifinals at Miami-1000, where his defeat to John Isner ended a 15-match winning streak. He reached the 3rd round at the Australian Open (l. Tomas Berdych).

Del Potro is bidding to record 6 straight match-wins on clay for the first time since he recorded a 10-match clay court winning streak in 2012 – winning 2 matches in Argentina’s Davis Cup victory over Croatia, winning the title at Estoril and reaching the semifinals at Madrid-1000.

Del Potro is bidding to extend a 4-match winning streak against lefthanders at Tour-level. He has not lost to a lefthanded player since he fell to today’s opponent in the semifinals at the 2017 US Open. He has a 53-22 win-loss record against lefthanders at Tour-level and a 16-4 win-loss record against lefthanders at the majors.

Del Potro has won 22 career singles titles, including 4 on clay. He won the titles at 2008 Stuttgart (d. Richard Gasquet), 2008 Kitzbuhel (d. Jurgen Melzer) and twice at Estoril, in 2011 (d. Fernando Verdasco) and 2012 (d. Gasquet). His other 18 titles have come on hard courts.

Del Potro underwent left wrist surgery in March 2014 and made his comeback in January 2015. He contested 2 events in 2015 before having further surgery on his left wrist. He made his return from a 3rd wrist surgery at 2016 Delray Beach.

Del Potro helped Argentina to its first Davis Cup title in November 2016, when the team defeated Croatia 3-2 in the Final in Zagreb. Del Potro won both of his singles rubbers, including coming from 0-2 down for the first time in his career against Cilic in the 4th rubber to win in 5 sets. He has a 16-6 win-loss record in the competition overall.

Del Potro is a 2-time Olympic medallist in men’s singles. He won a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Tennis Event in London, defeating Djokovic in the bronze medal match after falling to Federer in the semifinals. He then won a silver medal at the 2016 Olympic Tennis Event in Rio, defeating today’s opponent in the semifinals before falling to Murray in the gold medal match.

Del Potro reached the quarterfinals of the boys’ singles here in 2005, falling to Murray.

Del Potro was a member of the ITF 14 and under South American team in Europe in 2001 and 2002, funded by the Grand Slam Development Fund.

Del Potro is currently without a coach.

7 DOMINIC THIEM (AUT) v MARCO CECCHINATO (ITA)

Tour-level head-to-head: first meeting

2013 Italy F17 Futures Clay (O) FR Cecchinato 63 64

2014 Doha Qualifying Draw Hard (O) R16 Thiem 16 63 62

A first Tour-level meeting for the pair, who have met twice before below Tour-level. Cecchinato won their only previous meeting on clay at any level in straight sets 5 years ago.

Thiem has not lost a clay court match to a player ranked as low as No. 72 Cecchinato since falling to No. 421 Jurgen Melzer in the 2nd round at 2016 Kitzbuhel. He has never lost a player ranked as low as Cecchinato at Roland Garros – the lowest-ranked player to defeat him here is No. 23 Pablo Cuevas in the 2nd round in 2015.

Possible final head-to-heads

	Nadal	Del Potro
Thiem	3-6	0-4
Cecchinato	0-0	0-0

THIEM v CECCHINATO

24 Age 25

6’1”/1.85m Height 6’1”/1.85m

8 ATP Ranking 72

10 Titles 1

SF 2016-18 Roland Garros Best Grand Slam Result SF 2018 Roland Garros

42-17 Career Grand Slam Record 5-4

17-4 Roland Garros Record 5-1

205-117 Career Record 17-32

108-35 Career Record – Clay 17-26

34-8 2018 Record 13-9

25-5 2018 Record – Clay 13-8

4-5 Career Five-Set Record 1-0

2 Comebacks from 0-2 Down 1

76-69 Career Tiebreak Record 9-9

9-6 2018 Tiebreak Record 6-4

Road to the Semifinals

THIEM	Time		Time	CECCHINATO
d. (Q) Ilya Ivashka 62 64 61 d. Stefanos Tsitsipas 62 26 64 64	1:44 2:40	1st round 2nd round	3:41 1:58	d. Marius Copil 26 67(4) 75 62 10-8 d. (LL) Marco Trungelliti 61 76(1) 61
d. Matteo Barrettini 63 67(5) 63 62	2:37	3rd round	2:19	d. No. 10 Pablo Carreno Busta 26 76(5) 63 61
d. No. 19 Kei Nishikori 62 60 57 64 d. No. 2 Alexander Zverev 64 62 61	2:28 1:50	Round of 16 Quarterfinals	2:31 3:26	d. No. 8 David Goffin 75 46 60 63 d. No. 20 Novak Djokovic 63 76(4) 16 76(11)

total time on court	11:19	(IDS time)	13:55	total time on court

THIEM is bidding to become the 2nd Austrian player – man or woman – in history to reach a Grand Slam final. 1995 Roland Garros champion Thomas Muster is the only Austrian player to reach the final at a major.

Aged 24 years 280 days, Thiem is bidding to become the youngest Roland Garros finalist since Rafael Nadal (24 years 3 days) won the title here in 2010. He is also looking to become the youngest Grand Slam finalist since Kei Nishikori (24 years 253 days) finished runner-up at the 2014 US Open.

Thiem is bidding to become the first No. 7 seed to reach the Roland Garros final since Petr Korda finished runner-up here in 1992. In total, 5 No. 7 seeds have reached Grand Slam finals in the Open Era – Jan Kodes (1970 Roland Garros), Korda, Todd Martin (1999 US Open), Andre Agassi (2005 US Open) and Marin Cilic (2017 Wimbledon).

Thiem is bidding to record his 35th match-win of the season and go top of the list for most Tour-level match-wins in 2018, ahead of Alexander Zverev. (see table overleaf)

2018 Tour-level match-wins

Rank	Player	2018 win-loss
1=	Dominic Thiem Alexander Zverev	34-8 34-9
3=	Juan Martin del Potro Rafael Nadal	28-6 28-2
5.	Fabio Fognini	25-13

Thiem is bidding to record his 26th clay court match-win of the season. He is top of the list for most Tour-level match-wins on clay in 2018, ahead of Nadal.

2018 Tour-level match-wins on clay

Rank	Player	2018 win-loss on clay
1.	Dominic Thiem	25-5
2.	Rafael Nadal	24-1
3.	Alexander Zverev	21-4
4=	Fabio Fognini Diego Schwartzman	17-9 17-7

Roland Garros is Thiem’s most successful Grand Slam event in terms of matches won. He has a 17-4 win-loss record here compared to 11-4 at the US Open, 9-5 at the Australian Open and 5-4 at Wimbledon.

If he wins today, Thiem is projected to rise to No. 7 when the new rankings are published on Monday 11 June. By reaching the semifinals here, he has ensured that he will remain at least at No. 8.

By reaching his 3rd Roland Garros semifinal, Thiem has set the record for most Roland Garros semifinal appearances by an Austrian player – man or woman. Muster (1990, 1995) and Jurgen Melzer (2010) are the only Austrian players to have reached the semifinals here.

By reaching his 3rd Grand Slam semifinal, Thiem closed the gap on Muster on the list for most Grand Slam semifinal appearances by an Austrian player – man or woman. Muster, who reached 4 Grand Slam semifinals, and Melzer, whose only appearance in the last 4 at a major came here in 2010, are the only other Austrian players to reach a Grand Slam semifinal.

By recording his 17th match-win here in the quarterfinals, Thiem has taken sole ownership of 2nd place on the list for most matches won by an Austrian man at Roland Garros, ahead of Melzer.

Most matches won by an Austrian man at Roland Garros (all-time)

Rank	Player	Roland Garros win-loss
1.	Thomas Muster	32-13
2.	Dominic Thiem	17-4
3.	Jurgen Melzer	16-13
4.	Hermann Artens	15-6
5.	Franz-Wilhelm Matejka	9-3

By reaching the semifinals here for the 3rd straight year, Thiem has equalled his best Grand Slam performance. He reached the semifinals here in 2016, falling to eventual champion Novak Djokovic, and in 2017, falling to eventual champion Nadal. This is his 5th straight Roland Garros appearance and his 18th Grand Slam overall.

Thiem warmed up for Roland Garros by winning the title at Lyon, where he defeated Gilles Simon in the final for his 200th Tour-level match-win. He also reached the final at Madrid-1000 (l. Alexander Zverev) and the quarterfinals at Monte Carlo-1000 (l. Nadal) and Barcelona (l. Stefanos Tsitsipas), but lost his opening match at Rome-1000 (l. Fabio Fognini).

Thiem is one of 3 players – alongside Nadal and Alexander Zverev – to have won multiple clay court titles this season. In addition to his victory at Lyon, he also won the title at Buenos Aires in February (d. Aljaz Bedene).

For the 2nd straight year, Thiem is the only player to have defeated Nadal on clay prior to Roland Garros. His victory against Nadal in the quarterfinals at Madrid-1000 ended both Nadal’s 21-match winning streak on clay and his streak of 50 straight sets won on clay. It was the first time Nadal had dropped a set on clay since Thiem’s victory against him in the quarterfinals at 2017 Rome-1000.

Earlier this year, Thiem reached the semifinals at Doha, where he gave a walkover to Gael Monfils due to a viral infection, the quarterfinals at Rio de Janeiro (l. Fernando Verdasco) and Acapulco (l. Juan Martin del Potro), and the round of 16 at the Australian Open (l. Tennys Sandgren).

Clay is Thiem’s best surface, with 108 of his 205 Tour-level victories coming on the surface. By contrast, he has an 84-71 win-loss record on hard courts and a 13-11 win-loss record on grass.

Thiem reached a career-high ranking of No. 4 in November 2017. He plays here at No. 8.

Thiem has played Davis Cup for Austria since 2014 and has a 7-5 win-loss record in the competition overall. Austria will play Australia in the World Group play-offs in Graz on 14-16 September.

Thiem is a former junior world No. 2. He reached the boys’ singles final at Roland Garros as No. 14 seed in 2011, losing to Bjorn Fratangelo 36 63 86. As well as reaching the junior Roland Garros final, Thiem’s best junior result is winning the 2011 Orange Bowl.

Thiem joined the Austrian military as part of the country’s mandatory national service for 6 months from November 2014-April 2015, but continued to play on Tour during that time.

Thiem is coached by Gunter Bresnik. His physio is Alex Stober.

CECCHINATO is bidding to become the 4th Italian man in history to reach a Grand Slam final, and the first since Adriano Panatta reached the final here in 1976.

Italian men in Grand Slam finals (all-time)

Player	Grand Slam final reached	Final result
Giorgio De Stefani	1932 Roland Garros	Lost to Henri Cochet 60 64 46 63
Nicola Pietrangeli	1959 Roland Garros 1960 Roland Garros 1961 Roland Garros 1964 Roland Garros	Defeated Ian Vermaak 36 63 64 61 Defeated Luis Ayala 36 63 64 46 63 Lost to Manuel Santana 46 61 36 60 62 Lost to Manuel Santana 63 61 46 75
Adriano Panatta	1976 Roland Garros	Defeated Harold Solomon 61 64 46 76
*Marco Cecchinato??*	*2018 Roland Garros??*	??

Cecchinato is bidding to become the 8th Italian player – man or woman – to reach a Grand Slam final, and the first since Flavia Pennetta and Roberta Vinci contested the 2015 US Open women’s singles final. Francesca Schiavone (2010-11 Roland Garros) and Sara Errani (2012 Roland Garros) are the only other Italian women in history to reach the final at a major.

Ranked No. 72, Cecchinato is bidding to become the lowest-ranked Roland Garros finalist since No. 100 Andrei Medvedev finished runner-up here in 1999. He is also bidding to become the lowest-ranked Grand Slam finalist since No. 86 Marat Safin reached the Australian Open final in 2004. By reaching the semifinals here, he became the lowest-ranked Grand Slam semifinalist since No. 75 Safin and No 94 Rainer Schuettler reached the last 4 at 2008 Wimbledon.

Cecchinato is bidding to become the first unseeded man to reach the Roland Garros final since Mariano Puerta finished runner-up in 2005, and the first unseeded man to reach a Grand Slam final since Jo-Wilfried Tsonga finished runner-up at the 2008 Australian Open. By reaching the semifinals he became the first unseeded man to reach the last 4 here since Gael Monfils in 2008.

Aged 25 years 253 days, Cecchinato is bidding to become the youngest Roland Garros finalist since Novak Djokovic (25 years 19 days) finished runner-up here in 2012. He is also looking to become the youngest Grand Slam finalist since Milos Raonic (25 years 196 days) finished runner-up at 2016 Wimbledon.

Should he reach the final here on his 2nd appearance at Roland Garros, Cecchinato will become the 5th man in the Open Era to reach their first Roland Garros final on their 2nd appearance here. Bjorn Borg, Michael Chang, Vitas Gerulaitis and Gustavo Kuerten are the only players in the Open Era to reach their first Roland Garros final on their 2nd appearance here.

Should he reach the final here on his 5th Grand Slam appearance, Cecchinato will also become the 5th man in the Open Era to reach their first Grand Slam final on their 5th appearance at a major. Chang, Carlos Moya, John Sadri and Tsonga are the only players in the Open Era to reach their maiden Grand Slam final on their 5th appearance at a major.

If he wins today, Cecchinato is projected to break the Top 20 for the first time, at around No. 18, when the new rankings are published on Monday 11 June. By reaching the semifinals here, is projected to break the Top 30 for the first time, at around No. 27. His previous career-high ranking is No. 59, which he achieved in April this year.

By reaching the semifinals here, Cecchinato became the 8th Italian man in history to reach the semifinals at a Grand Slam and the first since Corrado Barazzutti at 1978 Roland Garros. Uberto De Morpurgo, Giorgio De Stefani, Giuseppe Merlo, Nicola Pietrangeli, Orlando Sirola and Panatta are the only other Italian men to reach the last 4 at a major.

Prior to this tournament, Cecchinato had lost in the 1st round at each of the 4 Grand Slam events he had contested – at the 2015 US Open (l. Mardy Fish), the 2016 Australian Open (l. Nicolas Mahut), 2016 Roland Garros (l. Nick Kyrgios) and 2017 Wimbledon (l. Kei Nishikori). Last year here, Cecchinato fell in the final round of qualifying.

Cecchinato’s victory against Marius Copil in the 1st round here this year was the first 5-set match he has contested. He came from 0-2 down to win 10-8 in the 5th set.

Cecchinato warmed up for Roland Garros by winning his first Tour-level title as a lucky loser at Budapest (d. John Millman). He became the first lucky loser to win a Tour-level title since Leonardo Mayer at 2017 Hamburg. He also reached the 2nd round as a qualifier at Monte Carlo-1000 (l. Milos Raonic), at Munich (l. Marton Fucsovics) and as a wild card at Rome-1000 (l. David Goffin), but fell in the 1st round at Geneva (l. Andreas Seppi).

Also in 2018 Cecchinato fell in the 1st round as a qualifier at Buenos Aires (l. Horacio Zeballos) and Rio de Janeiro (l. Pablo Carreno Busta), and as a direct acceptance at Quito (l. Gerald Melzer) and Sao Paulo (l. Sebastian Ofner). He also won the title on clay at the Santiago Challenger (CHI) (d. Carlos Gomez-Herrera) and the semifinals at the Marbella Challenger (ESP) and the Alicante Challenger (ESP). Of the 17 events he has contested at any level in 2018, 14 have been on clay.

Cecchinato is bidding to record his 2nd victory against a Top 10 player at the 5th attempt. His only victory against a Top 10 player came against No. 9 Goffin in the round of 16 here.

Cecchinato is bidding to record 6 consecutive match-wins at Tour-level for the 2nd time in his career. The only previous occasion he has achieved the feat was earlier this year, when he recorded 6 consecutive Tour-level match-wins from his title victory at Budapest through to his 2nd round finish at Munich. All 17 of his Tour-level match-wins to date have come on clay.

Cecchinato entered the men’s doubles here with Marton Fucsovics. The pair lost to No. 1 seeds Lukasz Kubot/Marcelo Melo 64 75 in the 1st round.

Cecchinato is coached by Simone Vagnozzi. His fitness trainer is Umberto Ferrara.

****All stats courtesy of the ITF/Grand Slam Media

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2018 Roland Garros – Day 13 Men’s Preview