Greek star Stefanos Tsitsipas on Wednesday defeated 20-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal in a five-set thriller at the Rod Laver Arena to enter the semi-final of the Australian Open.
World No. 6 Tsitsipas stunned the Spaniard 3-6, 2-6, 7-6, 6-4, 7-5 in four hours and five minutes to reach the Australian Open semi-final, where he will play Russian star Daniil Medvedev for a place in the final.
Comeback complete @steftsitsipas comes from two sets to love down to advance to his second #AusOpen semifinal.#AO2021 pic.twitter.com/8A9bkUwo26
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) February 17, 2021
At one point, it looked like Nadal would wrap the game up in straight sets as he had won the first two sets and was up 3-2 on serve in the third.
But that was when the Greek No. 5 seed raised his game and started to play a lot more attacking tennis. The set went to a tie-breaker and the Greek prevailed, earning a set back.
Tsitsipas became only the second player to recover from two sets down to beat Rafael Nadal at a Grand Slam on Wednesday.
He also gains revenge for his straight-sets loss to Nadal at this event in the 2019 semi-finals. The 2019 Nitto ATP Finals champion is through to his third Grand Slam semi-final, having also reached the final four at Roland Garros last year.