Tennis: Familiar theme as Nadal crushes title challenger

Rafael Nadal serves up a tough lesson for Dominic Thiem. Photo / Getty

If the first semifinal felt like grand opera, such were the emotions flowing on Court Philippe Chatrier, the second was as bland and rudimentary as a cocktail pianist tinkling away in the corner of a bar.

Rafael Nadal crushed young challenger Dominic Thiem in a touch over two hours. In the process, he reached his 10th French Open final for the loss of just 29 games in the tournament.

This has been the most dominant run of Nadal's career at Roland Garros, and that is saying something. The only man in grand slam history to better it is Bjorn Borg, who lost 27 games on the way to the final here in 1978.

Thiem got off to a misleadingly positive start when he broke in the opening game, thanks to a few nervy errors from the otherwise impeccable Nadal.

But while he was able to generate more opportunities - eight break points in all - he never managed to capitalise.

This might have been Thiem's second run to the French Open semifinals in as many years, but one suspects his quarter-final win over Novak Djokovic had taken something out of him mentally. By the third set of Nadal's 6-3 6-4 6-0 victory, he was a broken man.

"I started a little bit more nervous than normal," Nadal said afterwards, with his usual lack of hubris.

"But then I played well, I think. It's true that Dominic played with more mistakes than usual. His third set was not good.

"But at the same time it was windy out there, and he didn't play in the centre court before. Probably that was not helping him."

Nadal has never lost in the final in Paris, his only two defeats at Roland Garros coming at the earlier stages.

But then something will give tomorrow (New Zealand time), because the man he faces - Stan Wawrinka - has a 3-0 record in major finals.

Wawrinka and Thiem may share several stylistic tics - notably the flowing, single-armed backhand - but one is still a cub while the other has grown into a big beast these days.

Nadal, too, will need to bare his teeth tomorrow.