AO - Nadal d Tsitsipas, a decent thrashing

Day 11 of Australian Open 2019, and the first men’s semi final. 

This was match one in the night session on Rod Laver Arena:

Stefanos Tsitsipas (14) (GRE) v Rafa Nadal (2) (ESP)

For Stefanos, this was the second of the Big Three that he needed to knock over after showing the exit to Roger.  A difficult task indeed, but he hadn’t lacked confidence.

For Rafa, he just had to continue as per normal, because no sets were lost on his racquet in the matches leading into the semi final.

After both players held their first service games, Tsitsipas faced break point in game three thanks to a Nadal forehand winner, and subsequently dropped serve. Nadal consolidated with a love game, including two forehand winners. 3-1.

Two more love games and 4-2.

Tsitsipas had 40-15 but double faulted twice in succession. A backhand forced error and a Nadal backhand winner cost Tsitsipas the game, and he trailed 2-5.

Nadal served for the set.  A pair of forehand winners and an ace produced two set points, only one of which was needed.  Nadal 6-2.

Tsitsipas opened set two with promise, a love game giving him a much needed boost after the first set disaster.

It was fairly comfortable on serve for the first four games, and then it was the Greek turn again at the line.

Two Spanish winners, a backhand and a forehand, had Tsitsipas facing three break points, but he saved them all, two with forehand winners.

A backhand winner brought Tsitsipas a game point, and an ace sealed it.  3-2.

Serving at 4-4, two errors on the forehand side from Tsitsipas, and he was again in strife, down two break points.  He could only save one as Nadal attacked the forehand with success and broke serve. 5-4 and serving for the set.

A love game to take the set 6-4 and a two set lead.

Things began badly in set three for Tsitsipas, when he was forced into error constantly and faced three break points.  On the second, he was broken, and trailed 0-1.

Nadal raced to 5-0, breaking Tsitsipas twice more, and not facing a break point himself.

Serving for the match, Nadal did face his first break point for the set after an unforced error.  However that was merely a hiccup and a forehand winner brought it to deuce.

Two Greek backhand errors later and the match was over.

Rafa Nadal exploded into the final 6-2 6-4 6-0.