Madrid Masters Quarter Finals: Roger Federer vs Dominic Thiem, Preview and Prediction

The second quarter final of Madrid Masters men’s singles championship will see a mouth-watering clash between two of the most loved players on tour – Roger Federer and Dominic Thiem – thorough gentlemen, who possess two of the best single-handed backhand shots in modern tennis.

Dominic Thiem is one of those select few players on tour who have a positive head to head record against the Swiss maestro. The affable Austrian has won three of the five matches they have played against each other. Their latest match was at the finals of Indian Wells Masters this year, where Thiem came back from a set down to win his first Masters title.

The two have however played only one match on clay, at the 2016 Rome masters, which Thiem won in straight sets. He is considered one of the best players on clay and is widely tipped as the heir apparent to Rafael Nadal once the king of clay retires. He seems to be in good form and full of confidence, after his Barcelona Open title where he beat Nadal in the semi-finals.

At Madrid too he has looked good. After he lost his first set in the tournament to Reilly Opelka in the tie-break, he has not lost a set. He has broken his opponents four times and is yet to lose his serve even once.

His last match, against Fabio Fognini, was an impressive one. His return game was good as usual and he backed that up with a good serve, the key to which was him keeping about 80 percent of his first serves in.

To get the better of an in-form and confident Thiem, Federer will have to quickly recover from a gruelling encounter against Gael Monfils in the last match. He survived by the teeth of his skin, where he had to face match points against the mercurial Frenchman. He was broken three times in the match and there were times, especially at the later stages of the match, where he could barely manage to land his first serves in.

This promises to be a close encounter. But on current form, it is Thiem who seems to have the edge.

Prediction: Dominic Thiem to win in Three Sets