Australian Open: Thiem floors Nadal
Melbourne: Dominic Thiem shocked top seed Rafael Nadal and Alexander Zverev ousted former champion Stan Wawrinka as tennis's young pretenders stole a march on the old guard to reach the Australian Open semi-finals on Wednesday.
Austria's Thiem, 26, beat Nadal 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/4), 4-6, 7-6 (8/6) -- his first win in six attempts at Grand Slams, including two French Open finals -- to end the 33-year-old's bid to equal Roger Federer's record 20 Major titles.
Earlier Zverev, 22, beat 2014 champion Wawrinka, 34, to go into a semi-final with Thiem, meaning that one of them will reach Sunday's final against Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic, who have won 12 of the last 14 Australian Open titles.
Thiem had Nadal's measure in the first two sets and he recovered from dropping the third to win the fourth-set tie-breaker, getting off the floor after falling to win one point and enjoying some luck from the net cord to set up the third and decisive match point.
"I was lucky in the right situation -- the net cord was really on my side," Thiem said. "But it's necessary because he is one of the greatest of all time. You need some luck to beat him."
Several young players have been knocking on the door of the Big
Three of Nadal, Federer and Djokovic, and either Thiem or Zverev will get a chance to kick it open in Sunday's final.
Germany's Zverev rallied from a set down to halt three-time Major-winner Wawrinka 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 and reach his first Grand Slam semi-final.
Big things have been tipped for Zverev since he burst into the top 10 in 2017, but he said that until now he has been pushing himself too hard at the Majors.
"I was doing things in a way too professional way. I was not talking to anybody. I wasn't going out with friends. I wasn't having dinner. I was just really almost too focused."
"I changed that a little bit this week... maybe this is how it should happen," he added.
In women's singles Simona Halep sent out a warning at the Australian Open on Wednesday, powering into the semi-finals in 53 minutes with a 6-1, 6-1 destruction of Estonia's Anett Kontaveit.
The red-hot fourth seed will meet former world number one Garbine Muguruza in the last four in Melbourne.
The 28-year-old Halep, the only quarter-finalist not to drop a set, is bidding to add the Australian Open title to her 2018 French Open crown and last year's Wimbledon triumph.
"I felt great today on court. I was feeling my game, I felt strong on my legs," said Halep.
"I know how to play against her so I was just focused on every point I played." The Romanian lost the 2018 final in Melbourne to Caroline Wozniacki, but said: "That match wasn't negative at all. I couldn't finish (win) the match, maybe I was nervous.
"But now I have more experience. That match helped me win the two Grand Slams that I have already, and maybe it will help me get the third one."
Halep wasted no time asserting her authority over 28th seed Kontaveit, who was contesting her first Grand Slam quarter-final.
Halep broke the 24-year-old in the third game of the first set, then again in the fifth game. Spectators at Rod Laver Arena had barely had time to settle into their seats.
The former world number one sealed a one-sided first set in 29 minutes with a rocket of a forehand that the overwhelmed Estonian had no chance of retrieving. Kontaveit had failed to win a set against Halep in two previous meetings, and this was to be no different.
Halep broke again at the start of the second set and wrapped up a dominant victory in style, sending down an ace.
On Thursday, in the other semi-final, top seed Ashleigh Barty faces American 14th seed Sofia Kenin. World number Barty has won four of their five previous matches. Unseeded Garbine Muguruza underlined her return to form by reaching the Australian Open semi-finals for the first time Wednesday, setting up a clash with fellow two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep.
The 26-year-old Spaniard, a former world number one, defeated Russia's 30th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5, 6-3 in a hot and sunny Melbourne.
The other semi-final on Thursday sees top seed and home hope Ashleigh Barty face American 14th seed Sofia Kenin.
"Sometimes you don't feel great but you've got to fight and stay there," said Muguruza, now ranked 32 in the world, after reaching her first Grand Slam semi-final since Roland Garros in 2018.
"The first set was very hard, I think it lasted about an hour, but it was a very important set and I'm glad I got it."
"I'm excited to play my first semi-final here. I've known her (Halep) for quite a long time so it's going to be a tough match," she added.
Pavlyuchenkova, 28, who won the girls' Australian Open title in 2006 and 2007, and Muguruza twice exchanged breaks in the first set for 4-4.
But Muguruza got the decisive break at 5-4 up
when the Russian put her backhand long, the Spaniard sealing the first set in 56 minutes on first set point.
Pavlyuchenkova struggled with her serve in the second set and Muguruza, the 2016 French Open champion and Wimbledon winner in 2017, served for the match at 5-3, sealing it with a drop volley. It extends a rotten run of last-eight defeats for Pavlyuchenkova, who in 49 Grand Slam tournaments has reached six quarter-finals without ever going further. Muguruza struggled badly for form in the second half of 2019, failing to win two matches in a row after the French Open in May/June.
