NO. 1 NADAL GOES DOWN, DOWN UNDER

Rafael Nadal, above, loses in the Australian Open men’s quarterfinals to Dominic Thiem.

MELBOURNE, Australia — Austria’s Dominic Thiem upset world No. 1 Rafael Nadal 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 7-6 (8-6) with an inspired performance on Wednesday night to make his first Australian Open semifinal.

The 26-year-old will next meet seventh seed Alexander Zverev of Germany, who also defeated a former Melbourne champion, Stan Wawrinka, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to make his first career semifinal at a Grand Slam.

In the women’s draw, Sofia Kenin of the United States reached her first Grand Slam final by upsetting No. 1 Ash Barty, 7-6 (6), 7-5. The 14th-seeded Kenin had never been past the fourth round at a major tournament, but she’ll face either Simona Halep or Garbine Muguruza in Saturday’s final.

Nadal got the first break in the opener on 4-3 but down the line he failed to convert a set point on his serve, with Thiem hitting a winner to force the tiebreak. After 67 minutes of play, it was the Austrian who eventually grabbed the opener with his 20th winner.

In similar fashion, Nadal capitalized on a couple of double faults to break on 2-2 in the second, but fifth-seed Thiem broke back on 3-4 and eventually took the second tiebreaker with his 12th and 13th winners of the set.

After 11 holds from both players, Nadal finally got a break to stick as he converted the first of two set points on 5-4. Thiem got him back on 1-1 at the first time of asking, but then blinked as he went to serve for the match at 5-4.

In the tiebreak, the 26-year-old also failed to convert two match points but set up one more with an unreal cross-court backhand, with Nadal eventually hitting the net, putting an end to the match after four hours and 10 minutes.

“I really have the feeling that I was lucky in the right situations, the net cord was really on my side,” Thiem said. “But it’s necessary because he is obviously one of the greatest of all time, biggest legends this sport has ever had, so you need some luck to beat him.

Kenin saved two set points in each set en route to her semifinal victory. There were no service breaks in the opening set, with 21-year-old Kenin fending off three break points in a long sixth game for an important hold as the temperature topped 38 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit).

Barty was trying to become the first Australian woman to reach the final of the country’s Grand Slam tournament since 1980.