Osaka to face Kvitova for Women's Singles Title
Spain's Rafael Nadal celebrates after winning the match against Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas. (Reuters Photo)
MELBOURNE, JANUARY 24 (REUTERS): Rafa Nadal ended Stefanos Tsitsipas's trailblazing run at the Australian Open on Thursday, serving up a semi-final masterclass to blitz the 20-year-old Greek 6-2 6-4 6-0 and reach his fifth final at Melbourne Park.
Staging a clinic under the lights at Rod Laver Arena, the Spanish second seed tamed the Tsitsipas serve and racked up 28 sparkling winners against the man who knocked out double defending champion Roger Federer in the fourth round.
After roaring to a 5-0 lead in the final set, Nadal closed out the match with a huge serve in one hour and 46 minutes leaving Tsitsipas to beat a quick exit from the stadium.
Nadal, the 2009 champion, will face either top seed Novak Djokovic or 28th-seeded Frenchman Lucas Pouille in the final as he bids for a second Melbourne title and an 18th Grand Slam crown.
Having withdrawn from the Brisbane International leadup tournament with a thigh strain, Nadal was thrilled with his tennis and fitness at Melbourne Park, where last year he retired hurt in the quarter-finals.
"It has been a great match, a great touanrment, I think I've played very well every day," the 32-year-old said in his courtside interview after a pumped-up celebration.
"After a lot of months without playing, probably this court, this crowd gives me unbelievable energy. At that moment (in Brisbane), it was very difficult to imagine I would be here."
US Open champion Naomi Osaka staved off a fightback from Karolina Pliskova to reach her maiden AustralianOpen final with a 6-2 4-6 6-4 win on Thursday setting up a title clash with double Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova.
Osaka burnished her reputation as one of the cleanest hitters of the ball in women's tennis by smacking winners almost at will from both her forehand and backhand under the roof of the Rod Laver Arena which was closed due to extreme heat.
"I like the heat so I was kind of sad about that… No, but like, they have the roof open and I was like, 'oh, it's my time to shine'," Osaka said in an on-court interview.
She scorched the court further with 56 winners, often going down on one knee to generate immense power to leave former world number one Pliskova stranded.
The Czech could muster only 20, half of which came in the second set when she hung in to level the match despite the barrage of winners from her opponent.
"I mean I kind of expected (the comeback) a little… I was expecting a really hard battle," said the Japanese, who had won once in their three previous meetings before Thursday.
"I just told myself to regroup in the third set and try as hard as I can."
Osaka has now won 59 straight matches when winning the first set and also trumped Pliskova on the service front.
Meanwhile, Petra Kvitova stands on the verge of completing one of the bravest comebacks in tennis after ending the fairytale run of unseeded American Danielle Collins to reach her first Australian Open final on Thursday.
Two years after missing the tournament while recovering from an attack by a knife-wielding home intruder, the eighth seeded Czech booked her first Grand Slam final since her 2014 Wimbledon triumph with a decisive 7-6(2) 6-0 victory at a scorching Melbourne Park.
"To be honest, I'm still not really believing that I'm in the final," Kvitova told reporters, after becoming the first Czech finalist in Melbourne since Jana Novotna in 1991.
"It's kind of weird, as well, that I didn't know even if I was going to play tennis again.
"I think not very many people believed that I can do that again, to stand on the court and play tennis and kind of play on this level."
The 28-year-old lefthander will meet Japan's U.S. Open champion Naomi Osaka, who held off seventh seeded Czech Karolina Pliskova in the other semi-final, in the title-decider.
