The 14-time time Grand Slam champion also improved his career Roland Garros win-loss record to 77-2 and could potentially finish with a 79-2 record after Sunday's final.
"So far I have always played way worse match the following day if I beat a top guy".
Thiem is the only player to have beaten Nadal on clay this season, but the 23-year-old is under no illusion about the size of the task that awaits him in Friday's semi. "It's a big challenge, but I'm up for it".
Novak Djokovic of Serbia hits a return during the men's quarterfinal match against Dominic Thiem of Austria at the French Open Tennis Tournament 2017 in Paris, France, on June 7, 2017.
He said: "When have you seen Djokovic lose 0-6 in a Grand Slam quarter-final?"
Dominic Thiem demolished defending champion Novak Djokovic in a stunning French Open upset, setting up a semi-final duel against nine-time champion Rafael Nadal.
"It's going to be the toughest match you can imagine", admitted sixth seed Thiem, who trails Nadal 4-2 on head to head.
Djokovic had appeared in a record six consecutive semifinals in Paris.
The last French player in the tournament, 28th-seeded Caroline Garcia, is facing No. 2 Karolina Pliskova on Court Philippe Chatrier. Murray leads their head-to-head series 10-7, including a four-set victory in last year's French Open semifinals.
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Kuczynski is the first Latin American head of state that Macron has met since his presidential inauguration less than a month ago, on May 14.
Wawrinka is now eager to gain revenge on Andy Murray after setting up a re-match of last year's semi-final. "He doesn't give you a lot of options".
However, in the quarter-finals, he dropped the first set against Kei Nishikori before his greater stamina proved decisive.
According to three-time Roland Garros champion Mats Wilander, Murray will have his work cut out for him.
Murray set up a semifinal clash with Swiss Wawrinka, who swept the seventh-seeded Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-3, 6-1. "A year ago he was also playing really well and I had to play one of my best matches on clay to beat him", he said.
Nadal, meanwhile, is the hot favourite to collect an unprecedented 10th French Open and 15th career major.
He got broken early on in the second set as the wind swirled around the Court Suzanne Lenglen and, after squandering a chance to break back for 3-4, the match was effectively over, with Thiem clinching the second set before taking the third to love in just 20 minutes. I won in Barcelona and Madrid, but I lost to him in Rome.
Asked whether he felt as though he was returning to any semblance of form he exhibited past year, he said: "In the last couple of tournaments I've had some great matches".
"It's hard to comment on the third set, nothing was going my way and everything was going his way", he said.
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