BRISBANE (AUSTRALIA), Jan 5: Rafael Nadal missed three match points and needed a medical time-out Friday before losing to Jordan Thompson in the quarterfinals of his tournament comeback following a year-long injury layoff.
The 22-time major winner failed to convert a match point in the 10th game of the second set and two more in the tiebreaker before No. 55-ranked Thompson rallied to win 5-7, 7-6 (6), 6-3 at the Brisbane International.
With the Australian Open starting January 14, Nadal’s rehabilitation from the hip injury and surgery that sidelined him for most of 2023 will be tested.
The 37-year-old Spaniard opened the tournament with straight-sets wins over Dominic Thiem and Jason Kubler but was pushed for 3 hours and 25 minutes by Thompson in what was his third match in four nights.
His energy level visibly waned at the start of the third set. And, after Thompson broke in the fourth game and then held for a 4-1 lead, Nadal was assessed by the trainer apparently for his upper left leg.
He left the court for a medical timeout before returning and playing for another 20 minutes. After sending a backhand long on match point to end the longest rally of the match, Nadal walked around the net to embrace Thompson. He blew a kiss and waved to the crowd as he walked off Pat Rafter Arena around midnight.
Thompson also got the upper hand in a doubles match last Sunday when he combined with Max Purcell to beat Nadal and Marc Lopez, the 2016 Olympic champions. His reward this time is a semifinal against second-seeded Grigor Dimitrov, a former Brisbane International champion.
Top-seeded Holger Rune had a 6-2, 7-6 (6) win over James Duckworth to set up a semi-final against Roman Safiullin, who beat Matteo Arnaldi 7-6 (4), 6-2. Aryna Sabalenka and Victoria Azarenka will be on opposite sides of the net in the women’s semi-finals almost five years after teaming up on the same court in a Fed Cup semi-final against Australia.
Australian Open champion Sabalenka ensured the match-up when she extended her winning streak Down Under to 14 with a 6-1, 6-4 win over fifth-seeded Daria Kasatkina on Friday night.
She won a title in Adelaide last year before her Grand Slam breakthrough at Melbourne Park, the start of a 2023 season that also included a run to the US Open final and the semifinals at the French Open and Wimbledon.
Sabalenka was utterly dominant in the first set of her night match in front of a Pat Rafter Arena crowd that included actor Jude Law, pinning Kasatkina on the baseline with her deep, powerful ground strokes.
She peeled off 32 winners and dropped just one service game in 1 & 1/2 hours. Sabalenka and Azarenka have both won the Australian Open title and both have been ranked No. 1. They were both born in Minsk, Belarus, albeit about nine years apart, but have played only four times previously at the elite level. Sabalenka leads their head-to-head encounters 3-1.
“She’s an amazing player. I was growing watching her,” Sabalenka said of her 34-year-old compatriot. “It’s going to be great battle. I’m really looking forward for that.”
Azarenka, a two-time champion at both the Australian Open (2012 and 13) and in Brisbane (2009 and ’16), had a tougher run in the opening match of the day, needing 2 1/2 hours to advance 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 over a hot-and-bothered former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko. Second-seeded Elena Rybakina only needed to play seven games in her quarterfinal match.
Rybakina, who won Wimbledon in 2022 and was runner-up at the Australian Open last year, won the first set 6-1 before 11th-seeded Anastasia Potapova retired from their match with an abdominal injury. She’ll next play Linda Noskova, who beat 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva 7-5, 6-3. (AP)
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