Until today, Stefanos Tsitsipas (No. 6 in the world rankings) counted only one victory against Rafa Nadal. of Melbourne. Then Nadal had prevailed with 2019-3, but today Stefanos got the rematch.
And he did it in the most improbable way as although he found himself with his back to the wall losing the first two sets with relative ease, not only did he not throw in the towel, but showing incredible maturity, he came back and slowly, little by little he gained the upper hand in the match to finally reach the incredible reversal and qualification.
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The race
With the two athletes holding their serve with relative ease, the first suspicion of a break appeared in the 7th game when Nadal started with a double error in the service and a poor return for Stefanos 30-0, however the Spaniard responded with two terrible aces. and two excellent rallies to lead again again with 4-3.
We had exactly the same scenario in the next game with Tsitsipas leading 30-0, but Nadal equalized with incredible returns and with two mistakes by Stefanos made the coveted break…
And having now brought the game to its measures, despite the effort of Tsitsipas to answer immediately, in the 40-30 of the 9th game with an ace, the first set closed.
With "good morning" in the 2nd set, Nadal made a break and this threw even more psychologically Tsitsipas who could not react and so the 2-0 came very easily with 6-2.
But Stefanos found his balance again in the third set, at least in the games he served, because in Nadal's serve he got his first point at 40-15 in the 12th game with Nadal equalizing 6-6 and the tie starts break with… break.
At 1-1, however, the Spaniard made an effortless mistake on us and returned the break with Tsitsipas making it 4-3, 6-3 and with a mistake by Nadal to take the set.
Now the momentum had changed with Tsitsipas returning for good to claim the match, with his well-known attacking style, causing problems for Nadal.
The Spaniard, however, successfully kept his serve to reach 4-4. There, Stefanos was ahead with 0-30, Nadal answered for 40-30, but with an effortless mistake he sent the game to a draw and after a real thriller, Stefanos made the coveted break.
Nadal took the first point in the next game, but he was also the last in the set with Tsitsipas pushing from the serve and equalizing in 2-2 sets.
The thriller culminated in the 5th set where Stefanos was now playing with fatigue (physical and mental of Nadal).
Tsitsipas threatened some moments with a break, but mainly kept his serve comfortably, culminating in the 8th game with which he equalized at 4-4 having 4 consecutive aces to reach 5-5.
There Stef with amazing blows led the Spaniard to make continuous mistakes and made the break that brought him to serve for the match.
Nadal came in determined and led 0-30, but Tsitsipas responded with three consecutive points reaching the first match bowl. The Spaniard erased it, like the next one, reaching a break point himself, but there Stefanos made a terrible serve for the draw, immediately after that Nadal made the effortless mistake and in the third match point Tsitsipas with a win in the straight celebrated the huge upset and qualifying for the Australian Open semifinals
"I have no words… It is an incredible feeling to play at this level and give it my all on the field. "After the 2nd set I do not know what happened and I can not describe my feelings", he said in the flash interview after the match and he will probably have time to think about what he did today…