Melbourne: Rafa Nadal handed rising star Stefanos Tsitsipas a tennis lesson Thursday as he drubbed him 6-2, 6-4, 6-0 in the Australian Open tennis tournament semifinals to surge into the summit clash.
The Spanish second seed has not dropped his serve for an astonishing 63 straight games and has not lost a set on his way to the final, where he will face either Novak Djokovic or Lucas Pouille.
Nadal’s win put him into his fifth Australian Open final and keeps him on course to become the first man to win all four Grand Slams twice in the Open era if he can add to his sole Melbourne Park crown in 2009.
The pressure was mounting on Tsitsipas as tried to hammer his way out of trouble at 4-2 down by going for huge serves. Two double faults were the result and with his strategy being scrambled, an ill-advised drop shot gave the rapidly advancing Nadal an easy kill to extend his advantage to 5-2 before serving out the set in just 31 minutes.
The second stanza was on serve at 2-2 when Nadal pulled off the shot of the tournament, a running forehand around the net post from almost behind the umpire’s chair on his way to earning three break points.
This time the early break did not come as Tsitsipas suddenly found his first serve accuracy when he needed it most and crucially clung on to hold with an ace. But at 4-4 he was in trouble again as Nadal swarmed all over him and took the break and again served for a two-set cushion after just 75 minutes of play.
And the great Spaniard was in no mood to hang about at the start of the third, breaking Tsitsipas not once but three times to inflict a humiliating 6-0 ‘bagel’ on the youngster in a further 31 minutes.
The second break came with the help of another outrageous forehand winner after being wrong-footed, a dreamy lob winner followed by a tricky backpedalling overhead smash made to look ridiculously easy.