The 2022 Australian Open is now in the semi-final stage, with the top players closing in on the title. On the men’s side, the top seeds are still alive, with No 2 seed Daniil Medvedev surviving a scare to set up a tasty semi-final rematch against budding rival No 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The winner of that match will go on to face the winner of the Rafa Nadal-Matteo Berrettini semi. Nadal, who is in search of his record 21st Grand Slam, is hoping to recover in time following his physically taxing quarter-final tie.
And on the women’s draw, Danielle Collins made it two American women in the semis as she continues her impressive run Down Under.
Read on as SBOTOP provides the latest news and updates on the Australian Open.
Medvedev comeback sets up Tsitsipas clash
Daniil Medvedev has reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open for the second year in a row as he came from two sets down and saved match point to beat No 9 seed, Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime, 6-7(4), 3-6, 7-6(2), 7-5, 6-4 after four hours and 42 minutes.
Medvedev – the reigning US Open champion and losing finallist in Melbourne last year – struggled mightily in the first two sets, particularly with his serve, as he double faulted on key points.
But the Russian world No 2 got his game back on track and produced some Australian Open 2022 highlights just in time. He battled to a tiebreak in the third set and saved a crucial match point before going on to win the next two sets. Exactly how he managed to do so, even he doesn’t know.
“I have no idea,” Medvedev said post-match. “Are you talking about the match point? I managed to serve well. If it would be a second serve, we never know what would happen.”
Medvedev’s win sets up another matchup with rival Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semi-finals. Tsitsipas, the world No 4, breezed through to the semis with a straight-sets win over Italian Jannik Sinner.
Medvedev, whose Australian Open 2022 odds were aided by Novak Djokovic’s deportation, holds a 6-2 edge over the Greek in their eight head-to-head matches. Medvedev beat Tsitsipas in last year’s Aussie Open semis in straight sets, but Tsitsipas got his revenge with a straight-sets win of his own in the French Open.
Nadal recovering after suffering heatstroke in win
The other men’s semi-final will feature Rafael Nadal, who also survived a major scare to beat another Canadian in Denis Shapovalov, going up against Italian Matteo Berrettini.
The 35-year-old Nadal admitted after the match that he was left absolutely drained physically by his quarter-final clash.
“Honestly, I do not know how I won this one. I’m completely destroyed at the moment. I was a bit lucky at the beginning of the fifth set, and I brought the win home from there.”
Nadal’s coach, Carlos Moya, has since revealed that the Spanish superstar had actually suffered a heat stroke during the match.
“If you saw the match, from the end of the second set Rafa’s level dropped. Physically speaking, we didn’t know what was wrong if the foot or something else. We realized it was a heat stroke, he doesn’t fare well in extreme heat and humidity. And we didn’t expect this to happen after an hour and a half of playing.”
Moya went on to reveal that Nadal had lost four kilos of bodyweight following the match due to dehydration.
Nadal, who is in search of his record-breaking 21st career Grand Slam title, needs to recover quickly for his semi-final match with the 25-year-old Berrettini, who has much younger legs. The Italian has reached the quarter-finals or deeper in each of his last four Grand Slams, which includes the Wimbledon final last year.
Nadal and Berrettini have met just once before, and that came in the 2019 US Open semi-finals. Nadal won in straight sets.
Danielle Collins’ run continues in semis
There’s something about the Australian Open that brings out the best in Danielle Collins. The 28-year-old American is through to the semi-finals at Melbourne for the second time in four years after she beat French veteran Alize Cornet in straight sets, 7-5 6-1.
Collins will move on to face French Open champion Iga Swiatek, who needed to come from a set down to beat Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi. Collins and Swiatek met for the first time earlier this year; Swiatek won after Collins was forced to retire.
Collins is one of two Americans in the semi-finals of the women’s Australian Open draw as Madison Keys takes on world No 1 and hometown hero Ashleigh Bary.
The unseeded Keys beat No 4 seed Barbora Krejcivoka in straight sets to reach the Aussie Open semis for the second time in her career. Meanwhile, Barty demolished another American in Jessica Pegula, 6-2, 6-0, to reach the semis of her home Grand Slam. Barty holds a 2-1 edge over Keys in their head-to-heads, including the last two in a row back in 2019.
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