The 20 time grand slam winner put up his best against the young Italian Mateo Berrettini as the two met this morning in the Rod Laver Arena for the first Semi Finals of the Men’s singles Australian Open.
The Spaniard started in full form as he won the first 2 sets at 6-3 and 6-2. The third set although was an all italian affair as Mateo put his best foot forward and broke Nadal’s impressive service late in the third set. Berrettini took the third set 6-3.
With Berrettini getting 1 set and Rafa getting the first 2, the crowd rallied behind both players for the fourth set as they sat back down to watch an intense match of tennis between these two stars. Berrettini clearly had the advantage in the long rallies with him getting the better of Rafa multiple times throughout the match in a shocking statistic.
The fourth set started well for both as they tied 2-2 but it was all Nadal post that as he took his service game to take the lead at 3-2 and then continued his form to break Mateo’s serve and lead by 4-2. Mateo got in a service game after another Rafa game to set up 5-3 score with Nadal in the driver’s seat.
Rafael Nadal finally took home the finals spot by winning a long rally as Mateo’s unforced errors proved to be the reason for his demise in this tournament.
Nadal now awaits the winner of Medvedev and Tsitsipas later today as he heads to the finals on Sunday making it his 6th finals in Australia.