Rafael Nadal for the fifth time in the Melbourne final after defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas
The Spaniard disenchanted the Greek Federer conqueror Stefanos Tsitsipas with 6: 2, 6: 4, 6: 0 and reaches for his 18th Grand Slam title on Sunday. If he is lucky, Nadal would be the first professional in the Open Era to win each of the four majors at least twice.
The left-hander had already triumphed in Melbourne Park in 2009 - and then lost three Australian Open finals (2012, 2014, 2017).
by Ulrike Weinrich from Melbourne
last edit: Jan 24, 2019, 12:55 pm
After 1:46 hours, the powerful Nadal converted his first match ball in the Rod Laver Arena, which was sold out with 15,000 spectators, and remained in his sixth game at the "Happy Slam" 2019 without losing a set. The almost unlikely Tsitsipas could only work out a breakball at 0: 5 in the third set.
"It feels really good to be back in the final. I've played every game well here. This place and this audience just give me incredible energy," said the 32-year-old.
In the final on Sunday (7.30 p.m. local time / 9.30 a.m.CET), "Rafa" is waiting for either industry leader Novak Djokovic (No. 1) or Frenchman Lucas Pouille (No. 28), who face each other on Friday in the second preliminary round.
Compared to Tsitsipas (20), who is over twelve years his junior, Nadal was right from the start and put the youngster under pressure with his extreme topspin strokes. The winner of the 2018 NextGen final in Milan could hardly break free of the clasp.
Significantly, Nadal used his first breakball - with a 148 km / h forehand winner. In Garden Square, directly in front of the arena, the fans, many of them in blue and white national shirts and with flags, did not let the mood of the early deficit spoil.
The "Stef" fans organized a big party again
They celebrated their "Stef" with chants. Melbourne is home to the largest Hellenic community outside of Greece. In the arena, however, her darling, who had defeated defending champion Roger Federer (No. 3) in four sets in the round of 16, still had a difficult time against an almost error-free Nadal.
With a strong slicing counter after an equally formidable stop, the Paris record champion screwed the lead to 5: 2 and, a little later, converted his first set ball after half an hour. Nadal's success rate after the first service was 100 percent in the opening round. Eleven winners faced six unforced errors.
After that, the outsider with the one-handed picture book backhand, who had been the first Greek professional ever to be in the semifinals of a major, was able to make the exchange of blows more open. In the 0: 1 Tsitsipas fended off three break chances from Nadal in world-class manner and still got the game with an ace.
But in the style of a champion Nadal then took his serve at 4: 4 - and was a little later with 2: 0 sets in the front. Tsitsipas, the "Greek child prodigy" as the Australian daily Herald Sun called him these days, couldn't even blame himself.
His dream of the finale burst anyway. Nadal breaks in the first game of the third round. The young Athenian with the wild curls did not recover from this. His opponent, the title-hungry "Taurus from Manacor", played almost perfectly on this hot summer evening - at 9 pm local time it was still 35 degrees Celsius.
Tsitsipas can still head home with his head held high. In the city, where his maternal grandfather won Olympic gold with the Soviet national football team in 1956, he has become the nextGen's great hope.
And "Stef" has gained many new fans in the past two weeks. His own YouTube channel now has around 96,000 subscribers - around half before the Australian Open.