Dominic Thiem ended Rafael Nadal’s bid to win his 20th Grand Slam title by beating him in four sets in the 2020 Australian Open quarterfinal.
Thiem won 7-6(3), 7-6(4), 4-6, 7-6(6) to make the semifinal where he will face another Next Gen star in Alexander Zverev. Zverev had earlier also needed four sets to get past Stan Wawrinka in his quarterfinal.
And Nadal admitted he was beaten by the better player on the night, saying Thiem had played a high quality match on the day, having done that in the past as well.
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The first two sets went in similar fashion, with Nadal holding an advantage in both. He broke Thiem early in the set both times, only to be broken back and for the set to be taken to a tie-breaker.
It was in the tie-breaker that the Austrian took the early lead and even the fighting Nadal found it tough to make a comeback.
In the second tie-breaker, Nadal did show signs of his old self as he went from being 0-4 down to 4-4 in it. However Thiem wrapped up the next three points in a hurry to make it two sets to love.
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The third set looked to be headed towards another tie-breaker as both players continued to hold on to their serves. Nadal looked like he was getting into some rhythm but it wasn’t till the 10th game of the set that things went the way he wanted them to. Serving to stay in the set, Thiem went down two set-points at 4-5.
Thiem saved the first set-point but Nadal forced him into a long rally and countered with the point to wrap up the set.
The Austrian had another early break in the fourth set to go 3-1 up and then had a chance to serve out the match in the 10th game. Nadal fought back by converting the second of his two break-points and soon they were fighting in the tie-breaker yet again.
Much like the previous tie-breakers, Thiem got the early advantage to go 4-2 up but another fight back from Nadal saw him level it at 6-6, saving two match-points in the process. That was, however, as close as Nadal got to saving the evening as Thiem completed the last rites with winning the next two points in a hurry.
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