Tsitsipas ends Nadal's bid for Grand Slam record number 21

For the 225th time in his illustrious career, Rafael Nadal took a two-set lead in a Grand Slam match. For the second time, he blew that big lead and lost.

A pair of unusually sloppy overloads and a tiebreaker backhand in the third set started Nadal’s loss, and his bid for a 21st men’s major championship finally ended in the Australian Open quarterfinals on Wednesday at 3-6. , 2-6, 7- 6 (4), 6-4, 7-5 loss to Stefanos Tsitsipas.

On his throw-the-ball-where-he-wants-better early on, Nadal went ahead quite easily, earning 27 consecutive points on his serve down a stretch and increasing his streak of consecutive sets won in major tournaments to 35.1 less than Roger Federer’s record in the professional era.

Nadal and Federer are currently tied for 20 individual Grand Slam titles, more than any other man in tennis history.

But Tsitsipas never wavered and that surprisingly poor playoff from 34-year-old Nadal is thinking too much ahead, perhaps? – helped deliver the third set and start the epic comeback.

The only other time Nadal went from a two-set lead to a slam loss was 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 trying to continue his search for Federer, it will be Tsitsipas, a 22-year-old Greek with an eye-catching game, who will meet 2019 US Open runner-up Daniil Medvedev in the semi-finals on Friday.

Neither Tsitsipas nor Medvedev have won a Grand Slam tournament.

In the other men’s semi-final, 17-time Major Champion and No. 1 ranked Novak Djokovic will face 114th-ranked 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 entered this year’s first major with doubts about his back, citing that as his reason for withdrawing from the ATP Cup team competition that preceded the Australian Open and saying the problem prevented him from practicing properly for about three weeks.

But he hadn’t given up a set at Melbourne Park in four games; she won all 21 sets she played at last year’s French Open, where she picked up her 20th Slam trophy to equal Federer (Williams is 23, Margaret Court 24).

Federer has not competed in over a year after two knee surgeries.

With squawking seagulls providing a strange late-night soundtrack at Rod Laver Arena _ but no viewers, because they have been banned during a local COVID-19 lockdown, and won’t be back until Thursday _ Nadal always had an answer for anything Tsitsipas will try in start.

Rush the network? Here comes an angled pass shot. Hang out on the bottom line? Good luck trying to get past Nadal from there.

It looked like it could be a replay of his 2019 semi-final in Australia, when Nadal edged out Tsitsipas and allowed him to win just six games.

But this time, Tsitsipas came in after a full three days off, because the man he was supposed to face in the fourth round, No. 9 Matteo Berrettini, retired with an abdominal injury.

That _ and a 12-year age difference _ could have contributed to Tsitsipas being cooler at the end, as they played more than four hours. Tsitsipas, who has been billed as a future star for years, nearly managed these kinds of surprises against Djokovic in the semi-finals of the French Open in October, going from two sets to forcing a fifth.

Tsitsipas was unable to seal the deal at the time.

He did it against Nadal.

Tsitsipas led 6-5 in the fifth by breaking love when Nadal missed a series of shots, then served up the win by converting his third match point with a winning backhand.

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