22nd January, 2019
Second seed Rafael Nadal eased past unseeded American Frances Tiafoe to reach the Australian Open semi-finals and continue his bid to win all four Grand Slams for a second time.
The 32-year-old Spaniard cracked 29 winners in a 6-3 6-4 6-2 victory, BBC reports.
Nadal broke 21-year-old Tiafoe in each of his first service games of the set.
The 17-time Grand Slam champion will play Stefanos Tsitsipas in the last four after the 20-year-old Greek beat Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut.
Tsitsipas followed his last-16 victory over defending champion Roger Federer with another four-set win on Tuesday.
Nadal, who did have to stave off two break points at 2-1 in the second set, has not dropped a set as he aims to become the first man to win each of the four Grand Slams twice in the Open era.
Despite reaching at least the quarter-finals in 11 of his past 12 appearances, including four finals, he has only converted one of these runs into victory – his sole triumph at Melbourne Park in 2009.
And, despite not playing competitively since September’s US Open because of multiple injuries, he has cruised through his opening five matches.
Tiafoe, who celebrated his 21st birthday on Sunday by reaching his maiden Grand Slam quarter-final, could not cope with Nadal’s quality and intensity.
He had spent almost 12 hours on court coming into the match – more than three hours longer than Nadal – including his four-set wins over Wimbledon finalist Kevin Anderson and former world number four Grigor Dimitrov.
Nadal broke again for a 5-2 lead in the third, going on to wrap up victory in one hour and 47 minutes.