Tsitsipas ousts Nadal following sensational comeback in 5 sets

Stefanos Tsitsipas did the unthinkable by coming back against Rafael Nadal to defeat him 3-2 and advance to the Australian Open semifinals.

It did not look as if the match was going to go on for 4 hours and last 5 sets but it did with Stefanos Tsitsipas coming out on top and booking a place in the semifinals but let's start at the beginning. The start of this match looked quite similar to what one might have expected. Both players came out strong winning their service game without any issues. Tsitsipas had his serve and forehand working while on Nadal's serve he was unable to create any pressure which is an issue that followed him when playing the big 3 over the years. By the late stages of the set, his forehand became shaky and Nadal carved out a break point which he converted. It was all it took for him to clinch the opening set 6-3.

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The 2nd set more or less was a similar story. Tsitsipas continued to struggle with his forehand and the longer the rally lasted the likelihood of Nadal winning it went up. The Spaniard started playing even better in the 2nd set and a 5-1 lead turned to a 6-2 2nd set victory. The final set resembled the start of the match. Tsitsipas finally calmed down a bit and his game stabilized as Nadal was unable to do much on his serve. Nadal was strong on his serve as well with Stefanos unable to apply any pressure on his serve. We ended up in the tiebreak with an unbelievable stat that Nadal did not drop a single point in his six service games in the 3rd set.

That stat line suggested trouble for Stefanos in the tiebreak but the Greek caught a lucky break with Nadal committing several uncharacteristic errors which couple with his own solid play gave him a 6-3 lead which became a 7-4 tiebreak victory.

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From there it was just downhill from Nadal. His serve and general level of play dipped in the 4th and he was forced to fend off several break points from Tsitsipas in order to stay in the set. However, he would lose his serve at a crucial time when the score was 4-4 giving Stefanos the 5-4 lead which he turned into a 6-4 4th set victory. The final set featured a stellar battle and play from both players. Games came and went with neither allowing much on their own serve. Late in the set, Nadal completely faltered at 5-5 making 3 critical errors in the game to give Tsitsipas a break.

At 6-5 for Stefanos, Nadal had a 0-30 and a break point later in the game but Stefanos remained calm and served his way into the semifinals after a stellar comeback victory. The final score was 3-6 2-6 7-6(4) 6-4 7-5 with the match lasting just over 4 hours.

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🇬🇷 Comeback complete 🇬🇷 @steftsitsipas comes from two sets to love down to advance to his second #AusOpen semifinal. #AO2021

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