MELBOURNE, Australia — Rafael Nadal is certainly not treating tennis’ next generation well at the Australian Open.
Add 20-year-old Stefanos Tsitsipas to the list of youngsters Nadal has bullied on his way to his fifth final at Melbourne Park and 25th at all Grand Slam tournaments.
Nadal needed all of 11 minutes Thursday to show Tsitsipas – and everyone else – that the kid’s upset of Roger Federer was not going to be replicated on this night. Not even close. Breaking Tsitispas in the match’s third game and then another five times Thursday, while never facing a single break point himself until the very last game, Nadal won 6-2, 6-4, 6-0.
“It felt like a different dimension of tennis completely,” said the 14th-seeded Tsitsipas, a blank expression on his face. “He gives you no rhythm. He plays just a different game style than the rest of the players. He has this, I don’t know, talent that no other player has. I’ve never seen a player have this. He makes you play bad.”
It was the same straight-set, no-contest treatment Nadal gave to 19-year-old Alex de Minaur in the third round and 21-year-old Frances Tiafoe in the quarterfinals.
Asked if he was trying to make a statement with the way he soundly defeated these up-and-coming talents, Nadal said: “They don’t need any message, no. They are good. They’re improving every month. So it’s always a big challenge to play against them.”
Sure hasn’t seemed like it.
Tsitsipas’ run to the first major semifinal of his nascent career was most notable for the way he beat 20-time major champion Federer in the fourth round, saving 12 of 12 break points across four sets and 3 hours, 45 minutes.
But the left-handed Nadal was a much more difficult puzzle to solve.
On Sunday, the 32-year-old Spaniard will try to earn his second Australian Open title – he won the hard-court event in 2009 – and his 18th Slam trophy.
That final will come against either top-seeded Novak Djokovic or Lucas Pouille, who met Friday.
A title would make Nadal only the third man in the sport’s history to win each Grand Slam title at least twice, joining retired Australian greats Rod Laver – a front-row spectator Thursday night in an arena named for him – and Roy Emerson.
After a series of health issues, Nadal is once again the relentless forehand-whipping force that can dominate anyone.
WOMEN’S SEMIFINALS
Naomi Osaka is on the verge of a second straight major title after beating Karolina Pliskova in the semis in Australia.
Naomi Osaka never made it past the fourth round at any of the first 10 Grand Slam tournaments of her career. Now, still just 21, she’s suddenly on the verge of a second consecutive major championship.
And the No. 1 ranking, too.
Osaka moved one victory away from adding the Australian Open trophy to the one she collected 4 months ago at the U.S. Open, using her smooth power to produce 15 aces and groundstroke winners at will while beating Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 in the semifinals.
“I just told myself to regroup in the third set and just try as hard as I can,” said Osaka, who saved four break points in the last set and finished the match with an ace at 115 mph. “I was so scared serving second serves. I was like, `Oh, my God. Please! Somehow, I made it. I guess that’s experience.”
A day after erasing four match points and a 5-1 deficit in the third set to stun Serena Williams in the quarterfinals, Pliskova could not produce the same kind of comeback.
Instead it is Osaka, the only Japanese woman to win a major singles title, who will face two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova on Saturday. The winner will rise to the top of the WTA rankings for the first time; Osaka is currently No. 4, Kvitova is No. 6.
Two years ago, Kvitova missed the Australian Open, just weeks after her left hand was stabbed by an intruder at her home in the Czech Republic. Back at her best during what she calls her “second career,” Kvitova surged to a 7-6 (2), 6-0 victory against 35th-ranked American Danielle Collins.
Kvitova reached her first major final since the December 2016 knife attack that led to hours of surgery on the hand she holds her racket with.
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