Fighting Tsitsipas halts Nadal’s record chase
MELBOURNE: Rafael Nadal entered his Australian Open quarter-final with a 223-1 record when grabbing the first two sets of a Grand Slam match.
Thanks to his own mistakes —and some spirited play by Stefanos Tsitsipas—that mark is now 223-2.
A couple of uncharacteristically sloppy overheads and a framed backhand in a third-set tie-breaker began Nadal’s undoing, and his bid here for a men’s-record 21st Major eventually ended Wednesday with 3-6, 2-6, 7-6(4), 6-4, 7-5 loss to the younger, sharper Tsitsipas.
“Was little bit of everything, no? I missed a couple of balls in the tiebreak that I shouldn’t — that I could not — miss if I want to win. And that’s it,” said Nadal, who briefly left the Spanish portion of his postmatch news conference after clutching at his cramping right hamstring. “I have to go back home,” Nadal said, “and practice to be better.”
At his put-the-ball-where-hewants-it best in the early going, Nadal went ahead rather easily, winning 27 consecutive points on his serve in one stretch and running his streak of consecutive sets won at major tournaments to 35, one shy of Roger Federer’s record for the professional era.
Nadal and Federer are currently tied at 20 Grand Slam singles titles, more than any other man in the history of a sport that dates to the late 1800s.
But Tsitsipas never wavered and that surprisingly poor tiebreaker by Nadal—thinking too far ahead, perhaps?—elped hand over the third set and begin the epic comeback.
“I started very nervous, I won’t lie,” the fifth-seeded Tsitsipas said. “But I don’t know what happened after the third set. I just flied like a little bird. Everything was working for me. The emotions at the very end are indescribable.”
As Tsitsipas played, in Nadal’s estimation, a “very, very high level of tennis” over the last two sets, the 34-year-old Spaniard’s play dipped considerably.
So now, instead of Nadal attempting to surpass Federer, it will be Tsitsipas—a 22-yearold from Greece with a flashy game—who will meet 2019 US Open runner-up Daniil Medvedev in the semi-finals on Friday.
In the other men’s semi-final, 17-time Slam winner and No 1-ranked Novak Djokovic will face 114th-ranked qualifier Aslan Karatsev, who is making his Grand Slam debut.
Williams to face Osaka
The women’s semi-finals on Thursday will see Serena Williams squaring off against Naomi Osaka, who beat her in the 2018 US Open final. The second semis will pit Jennifer Brady against Karolina Muchova, who stunned home favourite and top seed Ashleigh Barty 1-6, 6-3, 6-2. TV Timings: Live on Sony Six, Ten 2 & 3, 5:30am & 2:00pm