Amazing: The bull from Mallorca lost a two-set advantage over Stefanos Tsitsipas and lost in the quarterfinals in Melbourne • Medvedev is waiting for the Greek in the semi-finals, and the Spaniard will continue the chase for the 21st Grand Slam title of his career on another occasion
Raphael Nadal
Photo:
AFP
After Novak Djokovic (1), Aslan Karatzav and Danil Medvedev secured their place in the Australian Open semi-finals, Clay King Rafael Nadal (2) had already made them signs he was stepping down, leading in two sets over Stefanos Tsitsipas.
But the Greeks had other plans: he turned the bowl upside down and qualified for the semifinals in Melbourne.
The bull from Mallorca, ranked second in the world, got into a huge drama on the main field in Melbourne, at the end of which he surrendered 3: 6, 2: 6, 7: 6, 6: 4, 7: 6 to the Greek Tsitsipas, who will meet Medvedev in the last four stages.
In the first and second sets the Spaniard presented almost perfect tennis and rose to a promising advantage.
In the third act, in which it seemed that Sandal would close the story quickly, he actually had a hard time, and Tsitsipas gave a serious fight and even won it.
It took him 54 minutes to do it, but in the end recorded a great 6: 7 victory in the tie-break.
In the fourth set Nadal continued his lukewarm ability, and this time too it cost him losing a set.
Tsitsipas did the job with a great 4: 6, equalizing 2: 2 in sets - and put the Spaniard under pressure.
In the fourth act we really saw how big the pressure is.
Tsitsiapas stunned Nadal with a huge 6: 7 in the tiebreaker - and sent him home with the dreams of a Grand Slam 21 in the career with which he came to Melbourne.