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Austria’s Dominic Thiem reached the semifinals of the Australian Open with a hard-fought upset of Spain’s Rafael Nadal, beating the World No. 1 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4), 4-6, 7-6 (6) on Wednesday in Melbourne.

The win marked Thiem’s first hard-court win against Nadal in a Grand Slam and made him just the second Austrian player to reach the last four in Melbourne, following in the footsteps of two-time semifinalist Thomas Muster. Thiem fell short against Nadal in the finals at Roland Garros in 2018 and 2019.

“All the match was on a very good level. We were both in good form,” Thiem said in an on-court interview following the win. “We already had this epic match (at the US Open) in New York two years ago and today I had a feeling I was lucky in the right situations. The net cord was on my side. He is one of the greatest of all time, so you do sometimes need luck to beat him.”

“I felt I was lucky in the right situations. It’s necessary as he’s one of the greatest of all times, one of the biggest legends in this sport, so you need a little luck to beat him.”

Take a bow @ThiemDomi, you’re into the #AusOpen final 4️⃣ 👏

Report ➡ https://t.co/xUXwCYqciJ pic.twitter.com/mQIn9kAKeq

— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 29, 2020

Thiem won 78 percent of his first-serve points (65/83) and recorded 65 winners, eliminating the No. 1 seed after four hours and 10 minutes.

The fifth-seeded Thiem will face Germany’s Alexander Zverev for a place in the final. The 26-year-old Austrian leads the seventh-seeded Zverev 6-2 in their ATP Head2Head series, which most recently includes a semifinal win at last year’s Nitto ATP Finals.



Zverev defeated 2014 champion and No. 15 seed Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to earn his first appearance in a major championship semifinal.

“After that first set, I was getting ready to talk to the press about why I lost in straight sets,” the 22-year-old Zverev said in his on-court interview. “I turned it around and my energy picked up a bit. I wasn’t used to his ball … I needed a set to get used it. Thank God it worked out.

“It feels awesome. I’ve done well in other tournaments, but I could never break that barrier in Grand Slams. I’m happy to be in the semifinals. You can’t imagine what this means to me and I hope it will be the first of many.”

First of many?@AlexZverev has finally broken his quarterfinal shackles by denying former champ Stan Wawrinka to reach his first Grand Slam semifinal 🌟

Match report 👉 https://t.co/oZQ4LV4KSV#AO2020 | #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/oOrbfQgPEd

— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 29, 2020

Nadal, the 2009 champion, was aiming for his seventh Australian Open semifinal, which would have moved him to two wins away from Roger Federer’s all-time record of 20 Grand Slam titles. However, Nadal’s loss means World No. 2 Novak Djokovic of Serbia can regain the top ranking with a record-extending eighth win in Melbourne on Sunday.

–Field Level Media (@FieldLevelMedia)