Melbourne: Tsitsipas upset Nadal in an epic five-set match to make the semifinals.
I’m speechless. I have no words to describe what just happened on the court. My tennis speaks for itself, Tsitsipas said after the 3-6, 2-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4, 7-5 win.
Second-seeded Nadal, 34, took the first two sets fairly easily to run his streak of consecutive sets won at major tournaments to 35, one shy of Roger Federer’s record in the professional era.
But he made some mistakes in a third-set tiebreaker and dropped it.
Tsitsipas, 22, then took the fourth set, too.
I don’t know what happened after the third set. I flew like a little bird, Tsitsipas said.
Previously, Nadal had only once lost a Grand Slam match after taking the first two sets. That happened at the 2015 US Open against Foigioni.
I missed couple of balls in the tiebreak that I shouldn’t, that I could not miss if I want to win, Nadal said. ‘And that’s it. I think Stefanos played a great fourth and fifth set.
I was there. I played a couple of bad games. Just well done for him.’
Nadal and Federer are currently tied at 20 Grand Slam singles titles, more than any other man in the history of tennis. There won’t be a chance at 21 this week.
‘Australian Open is one of my favorite events, without a doubt,’ Nadal said. ‘So I missed an opportunity to be in that semifinals again. And that’s it.
Well done for him. He played better than me probably in important moments. Was an equal match.’
In his post-match news conference, Tsitsipas said that there was no major mental adjustment that turned things around.
‘The thing is that I wasn’t really thinking about a lot of things,” he said. “Nothing was going through my head. I was so much — how would I describe myself? Nirvana. Just, like, there. Playing, not thinking.’