RAFA GETS DOMINATED

Thiem knocks out Nadal but admits: Nerves nearly got the better of me

DOMINIC THIEM conquered his demons and world No.1 Rafa Nadal in the latest late-night epic at the Australian Open.

Thiem will face fellow young gun Alex Zverev in tomorrow’s semi-final, while Nadal will have to wait until the French Open to reach 20 Grand Slam titles.

Having lost the previous two French Open finals to Nadal, Thiem turned the tables on the Spaniard after saving a set point in the first set and then winning all three tiebreaks.

Thiem had to battle nerves with victory in sight, failing to serve out the match at 5-4, and then wasted his first two match points.

The Austrian world No.5 avoided an unwanted hat-trick of misses when Nadal netted a forehand – but admitted he had nearly bottled it at the end of a brilliant performance.

Thiem, who won 7-6 7-6 4-6 7-6, said: “It was a special situation for me serving for the match against Rafa for my first Australian Open semi-final.

“It was a mentally tough situation and I couldn’t handle it. I really threw away that game with pretty stupid mistakes. But I turned it around in the tiebreaker. There are demons in the head, everyone has them. I was proud of the way I stayed in the match. It’s a very special victory for me.”

The Chelsea fan has come closest to breaking the Big Three’s domination of the Majors.

But the man nicknamed The Dominator warned: “It’s still a very long way to go. The other semi-final is still two of the Big Three.”

Nadal, who looked out-of-sorts before going out, said: “Of course I’m sad but I lost against a great opponent. And he deserved it, too.”

After beating Stan Wawrinka 1-6 6-3 6-4 6-2, Zverev restated the pledge he made after his first-round win to donate the Australian Open winner’s prize to Bushfire Relief.

The German world No.7 is two wins from his first Grand Slam title and giving away £2.15million to charity, having promised to donate A$10,000 per win to the fund, meaning he is up to A$50,000 (£26,000). Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic (left) faces Roger Federer in the Rod Laver Arena today.

He said: “I’ve been feeling well on the court. At the end of the day, this is my favourite court – the court where I had the most success in my career.”