With Rafael Nadal’s dominance during clay season and at Roland Garros, the primary sentiment is that everyone else is playing for second place.  After all, Nadal has won 10 French Open titles and has lost just twice in his career at Roland Garros.

However, one player who may feel some confidence against Nadal is Dominic Thiem who has defeated the Spaniard three times in his career, all on clay. Most recently, Thiem defeated Nadal in Madrid earlier in the month.

In a second-round match on court 18, Thiem took a step closer to potentially facing Nadal by defeating up-and-coming Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in a match that was continued after being suspended due to darkness on Wednesday.

The Austrian has been sharp in his first two matches in Paris as he has lost just one set thus far, but he knew he would have to be at his best against Tsitsipas, who defeated him in Barcelona.

“Tsitsipas was for sure one of the toughest second-round opponents possible here, and I did it in four sets,” he said. “It was overall a very good match, so my shape is great and I'm ready for everything that's coming up.”

The aggressive Thiem ripped 45 winners in the match and won 19 out of 22 approach shots.

Thiem entered Roland Garros with some momentum after a 12-4 record on clay this Spring and winning the title in Lyon last week.

It has been noted that, although Thiem has defeated Nadal 3 times (all within the last two seasons), they have all been in best-of-three formats. But Thiem is among the fitter players on tour, which could serve him well late in the fortnight in the best-of-five format. However, he will need to erase the memory of Nadal’s routine straight-sets win against him at Roland Garros last year.

Thiem has plenty of work to do before he can turn his attention to Nadal, which would have to occur in the Final. Alexander Zverev, Kei Nishikori, Marin Cilic, and Novak Djokovic are among those still active in his half of the draw. Matteo Berrettini is next up for the 24-year-old.