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Australian Open: Tsitsipas stuns Nadal in five-set thriller to enter semis

Nadal was bidding for a record 21st Grand Slam title

nadal-tsitsipas-afp Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas (R) and Spain's Rafael Nadal after their men's singles quarterfinal match on day 10 of the Australian Open in Melbourne | AFP

Rafael Nadal's bid for a record 21st Grand Slam title ended at the Australian Open with a five-set defeat to Stefanos Tsitsipas.

The Greek stunned the Spaniard 3-6, 2-6, 7-6(4), 6-4, 7-5 at the Rod Laver Arena.

It will be the third Grand Slam semifinal for the 22-year-old, and he will now face Russian Daniil Medvedev, who beat compatriot Andrey Rublev 7-5, 6,3, 6-1, in the last four.

A couple of uncharacteristically sloppy overheads and a framed backhand in a third-set tiebreaker began Nadal's undoing.

At his put-the-ball-where-he-wants-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 tennis.

But Tsitsipas never wavered and that surprisingly poor tiebreaker by the 34-year-old Nadal helped hand over the third set and begin the epic comeback.

The only other occasion in which Nadal went from a two-set edge to a defeat in a Slam came at the 2015 US Open against Fabio Fognini (who lost to Nadal in the fourth round at Melbourne Park this year).

So now, instead of Nadal attempting to continue his pursuit of Federer, it will be Tsitsipas  a 22-year-old from Greece with a flashy game  who will meet 2019 US Open runner-up Daniil Medvedev in the semifinals on Friday.

Neither Tsitsipas nor Medvedev has won a Grand Slam tournament.  

In the other men's semifinal, 17-time major champion and No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic will face 114th-ranked qualifier Aslan Karatsev, who is making his Grand Slam debut.

The women's semifinals on Thursday (Wednesday night EST) are Serena Williams vs. Naomi Osaka, and Jennifer Brady vs. Karolina Muchova.

Nadal came into this year's first major with doubts about his back, citing that as his reason for pulling out of the ATP Cup team competition that preceded the Australian Open and saying the problem prevented him from practising properly for about three weeks.

But he hadn't ceded a set at Melbourne Park through four matches; he won all 21 sets he played at last year's French Open, where he picked up his 20th Slam trophy to pull even with Federer (Williams has 23, Margaret Court 24).

Federer hasn't competed in more than a year after two knee operations.

(With PTI inputs)

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