Nadal, Wawrinka fall to young Gens, Thiem and Zverev
There will be a newgeneration men’s semifinal at the Australian Open when Dominic Thiem faces Alexander Zverev for a chance to face Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic in the final.
Both defeated members of tennis’ old guard in the quarterfinals, with Thiem finishing off a thrilling victory over No. 1 Rafael Nadal after midnight Thursday, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 7-6 (8-6). The match lasted more than four hours.
Zverev, the No. 7 seed from Germany, defeated Stan Wawrinka, a threetime Grand Slam singles champion, earlier Wednesday, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.
It will be the first Grand Slam semifinal for for the 6-foot-6, 22-year-old baseliner, who has broken out of a slump in Melbourne. It will be the first Australian Open semifinal for Thiem, a 26-year-old from Austria who lost to Nadal in the past two French Open finals.
“To really break a barrier, one young player has to win a Slam. One of us is going to be in the finals, but it’s still a very long way to go,” Thiem said. “The other semifinal still has two of the Big Three, so I think we’re still a pretty long way from overtaking or breaking this kind of barrier.”
Thiem was referring to the upcoming 50th meeting between third-seeded Roger Federer and secondseeded Novak Djokovic. Federer, 38, seeking to add to his all-time major mark of 20, saved seven match points Tuesday against the unseeded American Tennys Sandgren. However, Federer is nursing a groin injury and joked he would go skiing in Switzerland if he’s not feeling better by his Thursday semifinal.
Thiem is an all-court threat now with his baseline power and elite defensive skills. He had beaten Nadal four times in regular tour events but never in a Grand Slam tournament. In 2018, he pushed Nadal into a fifth-set tiebreaker in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open before losing one of the best matches of that season.
It looked like he might falter again Wednesday night when he served for the match at 5-4 in the fourth set only to crack with a double fault and three forehand errors.
“It’s a little bit demons in the head, like Roger said, it’s true,” Thiem said, referring to a comment by Federer last week that the “demons are always there.”
Thiem secured his spot after losing his serve at 5-4 in the final set and then missing shots on his first two match points in the tiebreaker. But tied at 6-6, he ripped a flat backhand passing shot that ticked the net and sailed past Nadal for a winner. On Thiem’s third match point, Nadal had an opening but missed a forehand into the tape.
“I’m not a big fan of talking about luck,” Nadal said. “A match like this does not deserve to be viewed from this perspective. We played for more than four hours. It does not come down to luck even if the differences in a match like this are very small.”
Nadal, 33, has won 19 Grand Slam singles titles, but only one of those has come in Australia.
HALEP-MUGURUZA SEMI
Two-time major winner Garbine Muguruza climbed Kilimanjaro in the offseason to get away from the yearround grind of the tennis season.
Early Wednesday, the 26-year-old unseeded Spaniard survived a shaky serve to outlast 30th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5, 6-3 to advance to a semifinal clash with fourthseeded Simona Halep of Romania. Halep, 28, who like Muguruza is a former No. 1 with titles at Wimbledon and the French Open, easily dispatched Anett Kontaveit 6-1, 6-1 in their quarterfinal.
The other women’s semifinal pits Sofia Kenin, the 21-year-old American from Pembroke Pines, against top-ranked Ash Barty, certainly a crowd favorite in her host country. The last Aussie woman to win the single championship was Chris O’Neil in 1978.
Muguruza’s time on the mountain was “definitely was a life-changing experience.
“It definitely had an impact on me, not as a tennis player, but just in general,” she said. “Being through such a tough challenge, did many things inside of me.”
The loss dropped Pavlyuchenkova to 0-6 in quarterfinals at majors; she has entered 49 Slams without reaching the final four once. ... American teenagers Coco Gauff of Delray Beach and Caty McNally have lost their Australian Open doubles quarterfinal 6-2, 6-4 to 2018 champions Kristina Mladenovic and Timea Babos.