Dominic Thiem has avenged his French Open final losses to Rafael Nadal, shocking the world No.1 to reach the last four at the Australian Open for the first time.
The Austrian fifth seed gave Nadal a taste of his own medicine at Melbourne Park, out-grinding the Spaniard 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 7-6 (8-6) in a dogfight that lasted more than four hours.
On the wrong end of a 4-9 career record, Thiem had never beaten Nadal in a grand slam after finishing runner-up to him in the past two Roland Garros deciders.
Thiem’s thrilling five-set loss to the 19-times major winner at the US Open in 2018 was still fresh in his mind as he finally got the better of Nadal at a major on Wednesday night.
Except this time he felt the rub of the green went his way.
“We already had this epic match in New York two years ago,” Thiem said.
“Today, I had really good feeling I was lucky in the right situation. (The) net court was really on my side.
“It’s necessary because he’s obviously one of the greatest of all-time.
“You need some luck to beat him.”
But lady luck could only carry him so far, with Thiem stumbling when serving for the match at 5-4 in the fourth set.
“It’s a little bit demons in the head,” he said.
“Like Roger (Federer) said, it’s true. Everybody has it. I was rushing way too much.
“Of course it’s very tough to handle if you are out of 5-4 against Rafa.
“That’s tennis. You have to deal with the situations. Almost every single game. So I’m very happy that I won the tiebreak. Otherwise, we’d be in a fifth now.”
Thiem, a renowned clay-courter as a four-time French Open semi-finalist, has underachieved at the Australian Open until now, having never progressed further than the fourth round.
But the 26-year-old’s hardcourt game has come on leaps and bounds, emphasised by his title at Indian Wells last year.
He’ll now meet German Alexander Zverev, another young gun touted as a future grand slam champion, for a place in Sunday’s men’s final.
“I think it’s first time I’m playing grand slam semi-finals (when) I’m the older player,” Thiem said.
“(It’s a) new situation. We’re great friends. I’m really happy that he plays his first semi-final.
“But, of course, we both going to try our best.”
