MELBOURNE, Australia — Rafael Nadal is back to feeling healthy, and he’s back in the Australian Open semifinals.
Playing his familiar brand of court-covering, ball-bashing, opponent-frustrating tennis, Nadal, ended American Frances Tiafoe’s best Grand Slam run with a dominating 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 victory Tuesday night.
“I feel lucky to be where I am after all the things I went through,” said Nadal, who quit during his quarterfinal at Melbourne Park a year ago because of a right leg problem, again during his semifinal at the U.S. Open in September because of a painful right knee, and then had offseason surgery on his right ankle. “Not easy situations.”
Nadal, 32, reached his 30th major semifinal and prevented Tiafoe from getting to his first, two days after he turned 21.
“I knew he was going to bring crazy intensity. I knew the ball was going to be jumping. I knew if he got hold of a forehand, it was going to be barbecued chicken,” Tiafoe said. “But point in, point out, I’ve never seen someone so locked in.”
But Nadal, a 17-time major champion, was on his game.
“I am playing well,” Nadal said. “I did a lot of things well during the whole week and a half.”
Now Nadal goes up against another opponent much younger than he is, 20-year-old Stefanos Tsitsipas, who upset Roger Federer in the fourth round.
The 14th-seeded Tsitsipas became the first player from Greece to earn a semifinal berth at a major, beating No. 22 Roberto Bautista Agut 7-5, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2) earlier Tuesday.
“It’s going to be interesting,” Tsitsipas said about his matchup against Nadal. “I feel all right with my game. I feel like I can do something good against him.”
On the women’s side, Naomi Osaka reached the semifinals for the first time by stretching her Grand Slam winning streak to 12 matches with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Elina Svitolina.
“I tried to be consistent,” the No. 4-seeded Osaka said, “or as consistent as I can.”
She never had been past the fourth round at the Australian Open. Osaka’s semifinal opponent will be either 23-time major champion Serena Williams or No. 7 seed Karolina Pliskova, who played the other semifinal late Tuesday.
Osaka, 21, beat Williams for the championship at the U.S. Open in September.
Unseeded 25-year-old Danielle Collins of the U.S. reached her first Slam semifinal with a 2-6, 7-5, 6-1 victory against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia. Collins was 0-5 record at majors and now has strung together five victories in a row.
She’ll face two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, who is back in the semis at a major for the first time since she was stabbed during an attack at her home in December 2016.
“I didn’t really imagine being back,” a teary Kvitova said after defeating No. 15 Ash Barty of Australia 6-1, 6-4.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.