Fresh from his remarkable takedown of Rafael Nadal, Austrian Dominic Thiem is acutely aware that his time is now as he stands just two wins away from a maiden grand slam triumph.

The clay-court expert’s four previous major semi-final appearances were all on his favoured surface at Roland Garros.

And significantly, on each occasion his opponent was older.

Now aged 26, the No.5 seed will be very much the senior man in Friday night’s Australian Open semi-final against 22-year-old German Alexander Zverev.

The pair are among a select group often touted as as those most likely to finally end the grand slam domination by big three Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Nadal.

Thiem has won six of their previous eight outings and is two-from-two against Zverev at the majors having eliminated the German at the 2016 and 2018 French Opens.

“For me it’s funny because it’s the first time in a grand slam semi-final that I face a younger guy,” said Thiem.

“We’re good friends and I’m happy for him, as well, that he’s playing so good here, that he made his breakthrough at a grand slam.

“We have no secrets from each other.

“We’ve played so many times and also on very special occasions already, at the ATP Finals semis, French Open quarters.

“It’s a nice rivalry we have and it’s great that we add an Australian Open semi-final to this one.

“It’s going to be a close match again.”

Thiem needed more than four hours to claim his first grand slam win over Nadal, hanging tough after dropping the third set to prevail 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 7-6 (8-6) and avenge his losses to the Spanish world No.1 in the past two French Open deciders.

He also had to overcome a few mental demons after failing to serve out the match at 5-4 in the fourth set before eventually getting up in a third tiebreaker.

Zverev started slowly in his quarter-final against three-time major winner Stan Wawrinka but came home strong to win 1-6 6-3 6-4 6-2.

The No.7 seed feels he has cleared a major hurdle by reaching the semis at a slam for the first time in 19 attempts.

“I’ve done well at other tournaments, I’ve won Masters Series and World Tour Finals, but the grand slams were always the week where I kind of wanted it too much,” he said.

“I was doing things in a way too professional.

“I wasn’t talking to anybody, I wasn’t going out with friends, I wasn’t having dinner.

“I was just really almost too focused.

“I changed that a little this week and I’m doing many more things outside the court.

“I also was playing that bad at the ATP Cup that I didn’t have any expectations.

“I wasn’t really expecting myself in the semi-finals or quarter-finals.

“So maybe this is a stepping stone.

“Maybe this is how it should happen.”

Zverev will stand by the pledge made after his opening-round victory over Marco Cecchinato to donate his entire winner’s cheque to the victims of the Australian bushfires if he goes on to lift the trophy at Melbourne Park.”