Look forward to watching defending women's champ, Naomi Osaka, along with the men's champ, Novak Djokovic, doing battle at Margaret Court Arena at Melbourne Park.Īnd it all happens during a hot Australian summer making the 'Open Down Under' a true test of speed, strength, and professional cool. Tsitsipas will face Russian Daniil Medvedev for a place in the final.Get ready for the start of another Grand Slam season in 2022 - as the Australian Open kicks off in Melbourne - on Monday, January 17,continuing through to the men's final on Sunday, January 30, 2022. But Tsitsipas broke to love for 6-5 when Nadal uncharacteristically committed four unforced errors in a row, then held his nerve and served out the match to advance to the semi-finals. Tsitsipas looked even better in the fourth set, matching it with Nadal in the physicality stakes as he outmuscled the second seed in key moments, breaking late in the set to ensure they would be going the distance.īoth players were clutch on serve in the decider and each looked like they were a chance of winning. Remarkably, Nadal made as many unforced errors in the tiebreak – 5 – as he did in each of the first two sets. He mishit an overhead smash that went long and then repeated the dose on a similar point, this time after waiting for the ball to bounce.Ī shanked backhand hit the frame of the racquet and ballooned into the air, missing the court by miles as Tsitsipas stayed in the hunt, breaking Nadal’s incredible streak of winning 35 consecutive sets at grand slams – one short of Roger Federer’s record of 36. It went to a tiebreak, where the 34-year-old lost the plot with some wild unforced errors. The third set was much closer and Nadal only lost his first point on serve at 5-6. The only thing bothering the Spaniard was the umpire's focus on how much time he was taking between points, the shot clock irritating him more than any of his opponent's shots. Tsitsipas had no answers as Nadal ran riot to start the match, hitting his trademark forehand winners and delivering rock solid service games. Would have been easy to just succumb after falling two sets behind with virtually no resistance, but he didn’t, his attitude was amazing. Two years ago Nadal “destroyed” Tsitipas, per the Greek’s own words. How many players have come from 2 sets down versus Nadal in a slam and gone on to win? Incredible performance by Tsitsipas in the #AusOpen quarter final. But comes back to become only the second player *ever* to beat Nadal from a 2-0 deficit at a Slam. Looked down and out after the first two sets. Wow- Thanasi Kokkinakis February 17, 2021 It’s also only the second time Nadal has ever lost after going up two-sets-to-love at a grand slam. 6's career he’s won after losing the first two sets. It’s just the second time in the world No. The tennis world was in awe at the end of the astonishing clash, which lasted just over four hours.
The emotions at the very end are indescribable. "I fly like a little bird, everything was working for me. I don't know what happened after the third. "Today's performance, I started very nervous, I won't lie. "It's an unbelievable feeling to be able to fight at such a level and leave my all out on the court. I have no words to describe what just happened," Tsitsipas said. But as the Spaniard wilted, Tsitsipas went up through the gears to secure an incredible 3-6 2-6 7-6 6-4 7-5 victory. Tsitsipas shouldn’t have stood a chance after coughing up a two-set deficit as it looked like Nadal would stroll through and keep his pursuit of a 21st grand slam title alive. Stefanos Tsitsipas has done the unthinkable, coming back from two sets down to stun Rafael Nadal and win his way into the Australian Open semi-finals.
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