Dominic Thiem stuns Nadal to reach SFs of Australian Open

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Patna : Fifth seed Dominic Thiem, 26, Austria, knocked out top seed and winner of 19 Grand Slam titles Rafael Nadal, 33, Spain, out of the Australian Open (AO) 2020 defeating him in a four-set marathon in quarter-finals in 4 hrs 10 minutes at Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, on January 29, 2020, hitting 65 winners. Thiem will face World No 7 Alexander Zverev in semi-finals.

World No 5 Dominic Thiem stunned World No 1 and 2009 champion 7-6, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 to enter the semi-finals of AO for the first time. It was also his first victory over Nadal on hard court. Nadal, who lost to World No 2 Novak Djokovic, Serbia, in the AO final in 2019, was defending 1,200 ATP rankings points. He secured just 360 rankings points by reaching the QFs.

Thiem fired 14 Aces in the match to 11 by Nadal. But, he committed 4 double faults to 3 by Nadal. The World No 1 won 4 break points in the match to 3 by the Austrian. Both the players won 3 games each in a row. The Spaniard also won 96 service points to 93 by Thiem. Nadal still leads Thiem 9-5 Head to Head.