Nadal Beats Raonic To Reach First Grand Slam Semi In Three Years
Credit photo to Sidney Beal III
Rafael Nadal defeated Milos Raonic 6-4, 7-6(7) 6-4 on Wednesday to reach the Australian Open semifinals, his first major semifinal since the 2014 French Open.
“It is good news—especially beating difficult players: Monfils, Zverev and now Raonic. I think all of them are top players,” said Nadal. “So that’s very important for me, because that means I am competitive and playing well. I am just excited about being back in the final rounds of the most important events. I am here to try to win this.”
An overhead error gave Nadal the only break of the opening set for a 4-3 lead, and he won 83 percent of his first serve points and 90 percent of net points to win the first set.
Raonic saved four break points in the second set to push it into a tiebreaker, but was unable to convert on three set points in the tiebreaker, and Nadal took a two-sets-to-love advantage.
Nadal continued to dominate with his serve and didn’t face a single break point in the third, and converted on the first chance he had, breaking at love in the set’s 10th game to close out the straight-sets victory and advance.
“There were some opportunities in the second set, other than that, there wasn’t much for me to hold onto,” Raonic reflected. “I think the first two [set points], he hit one good serve well, and the other one I didn’t cover the serve I shiyld have covered. Then, after that, I think I rushed in the tiebreak. I made two pretty poor mistakes off balls that didn’t have much [on them] in the middle of the court on my forehand side.”
Nadal will take on 15th seeded Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, who defeated 11th seed David Goffin 6-3,, 6-2, 6-4 in the first men’s semifinal on Wednesday.
Dimitrov wasted no time in this one, opening up a 3-0 advantage and never looked back. He had his serve broke just twice throughout the match while breaking Goffin’s serve six times to reach his second career major semifinal (2014 Wimbledon).
“After the first set, I felt a little bit better, for sure,” said Dimitrov. “Then, I felt I was in control of the match after that.
I feel like I have all the tools to go further and my job isn’t over yet. I’m looking forward to my match on Friday. I think I’m prepared. I think I’m ready to go the distance.”
Nadal is 7-1 all-time against Dimitrov, but the Bulgarian won the most recent matchup in Beijing last year.
