Australian Open 2020: Dominic Thiem storms past Rafael Nadal in a thriller, books his first semi-finals at Melbourne Park

The heart might be getting just too weak to bear the intense drama that the Australian Open keeps offering as the first of the Big Three - Rafael Nadal has fallen at the quarter-final stages of the tournament. The 19-time Grand Slam Champion was defeated by World No. 5 Dominic Thiem in a mouth-watering clash that turned into a thriller movie. The Austrian battled for over four gruelling sets, squandered easy match points only to pull up his socks in time to finally send the Spaniard crashing out, 7-6, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6. With that, Rafael Nadal becomes the first to bite the dust out of the Big Three and his hopes of getting a second Australian Open and a 20th Grand Slam title remains postponed for later.

It will be hard to wipe the smile off @ThiemDomi's face any time soon 😁😁😁😁😁😁😁#AO2020 | #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/3x8ZvCvTEk

— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 29, 2020

Dominic Thiem has been in a surreal shape in this tournament and right from the get-go of this encounter of epic proportions, Thiem looked determined to outclass Rafa Nadal. A combination of ill-luck and poor shots dictated the day for the Spanish World No. 1 as his efforts to salvage the break of serves, the match points, all turned to vain as the Austrian emerged to be more powerful on a rare occasion. Thiem, all but steamrolled his way into his first-ever Australian Open semi-finals as he edged past Nadal after a battle that lasted 4 hours and 10 minutes.

Also Check out: the full Australian Open Results & list of Australian Open Winners

It's been a pleasure, @RafaelNadal.We hope to see you next year 👋#AO2020 | #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/YN0jODE6Kj

— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 29, 2020

The scoreboard is enough to indicate the tense conditions of the match. In the first two sets, Nadal was up in the tie-break when Thiem bounded up out of nowhere to take charge of the situations. With two formidable clay-court specialists playing each other on one of the fastest courts, the action was destined to be exciting. Their only meeting on the hard court turf had come in 2018 US Open where it was another thriller with Nadal emerging as the better player on that day. The case was definitely not to be so today as Thiem was too powerful and played like a man possessed. Nadal, on the other hand, was sluggish in some points and could not deliver like he is known to do. Thiem cut out an incredibly domineering figure on the other side of the net, making the Spaniard look weak and vulnerable in crucial points.

A dejected Rafael Nadal after being broken on serve

Throughout the course of the match, there were several break of serves taking place which was only followed by levelling up, that forced the match into three tie-breakers in a four-set clash. In the final moments of the fourth set, Thiem was broken when was serving for the match at 5-4. Soon enough, we were into another tie-break with the Austrian leading the way and Nadal remaining in hot pursuit, warding off two match points. The tension was piquing by then and finally Thiem served out on his third match point in the tie-break to cause a major upset as he stormed into his first Australian Open semi-finals while Rafael Nadal bit the dust.

Dominic Thiem was outstanding in the tie-breakers

Moving forward, what is more interesting is that nobody had pitched too much on either Dominic Thiem or Alexander Zverev to play this well and they have outdone themselves and surprised everyone by making it to their first Australian Open semi-finals. As two first-time semi-finalists get ready to meet each other, we better be wary about the future. The change of guards might just be taking place, maybe sooner than we expected. As it is, it's Dominic Thiem who lives to see another day at the Australian Open while Rafael Nadal has to bid farewell.