Rafael Nadal goes down in a thrilling 5-set battle in Australian Open QF to Tsitsipas

World number two men's singles tennis player Rafael Nadal bowed out of the ongoing Australian Open 2021 after suffering a defeat in his quarter-final clash against Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday.

 With an impressive  3-6, 2-6, 7-6(4), 6-4, 7-5 win over the Spaniard, Tsitsipas advanced to his second Australian Open semi-final and will be up against Daniil Medvedev in the semis. 

Tsitsipas snatches victory from the jaws of defeat

At one point, the winner of 20 Grand Slams was right on course to record an easy win over Tsitsipas after taking a 2-0 lead. However, it all fell apart for Nadal as the No 5 seed pulled off a stunning comeback in the third and fourth sets to consolidate a semi-final berth. 

Meanwhile, Stefanos Tsitsipas is only the third ever player to come back from two sets down against Rafael Nadal with the other two being Nadal's arch-nemesis on the tennis court Roger Federer, and, the current world number 17 Fabio Fognini respectively.
Federer had achieved this feat during the summit clash of the 2005 Miami Open final while Fognini beat 'Rafa' in a similar fashion during their third-round clash of the 2015 US Open. 

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The turning point of the contest

The current world number five provided more of a challenge in the third set, and it went into a tie-breaker which was eventually won by Stefanos as the contest headed into the fourth set.

The Greek then continued with his momentum and he made a charge in the fourth set, winning it 6-4 and as a result, the match went into the fifth and final set.

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With a place in the semi-final on the line in the fifth set, both Nadal and Tsitsipas put on a masterclass and in the end, Tsitsipas managed to emerge triumphant, sending 'Rafa' out of the competition.  With Rafael Nadal's ouster from this year's Australian Open his quest for a record, 21st Grand Slam ends for now. 

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