Rafael Nadal, the men's No. 3 seed, is out of the Australian Open after falling to Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinals.
Men's No. 7 seed Tomas Berdych took down the third-seeded Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, winning 6-2, 6-0, 7-6 (7-5). It was an absolutely dominant performance by Berdych for much of the match. His shot placement was incredible throughout the match. It seemed as though he were playing with a wider court than Nadal was, as a number of his shots painted the line, whether he was serving or returning.
With the win, Berdych advanced to the semifinals, where he'll take on either unseeded Nick Kyrgios or No. 6 seed Andy Murray.
Berdych came into the match having won just one of his last 17 sets against Nadal and had lost the last 17 matches they'd played. He either wasn't aware of those stats or they didn't get to his head one bit. Nadal himself was well-aware of said stats, but he insisted past stats did not matter against a player as good as Berdych.
Berdych was dominant from the beginning of the match, taking a 4-2 lead in the first set and battling back from a couple solid points by Nadal to take that frame, 6-2.
Nadal was clearly frustrated following that opening set, and Berdych did not let up in the second. He dominated the flow of play whether serving or not and Nadal's serve was missing a lot of its usual pop. On top of that, Nadal was making mistakes, leading to Berdych taking a commanding 5-0 lead in that set.
Nadal finally started to fight back on his serve at that point, but still made mental errors to hinder his progress. After two big shots to go up 30-0 in the game, Nadal lost his momentum after hitting a ball into the net, allowing Berdych to get back into it. What followed were two brilliant shots from Berdych to go up 40-30 with a set point attempt, and Nadal offered little resistance on said point, giving Berdych the 6-0 second set win.
While Berdych kept up his excellent shot placement, Nadal did improve in the third set. He took his first service game without issue (and also had the crowd firmly on his side, as they were loudest every time Nadal put points on the board) and hounded Berdych on his service attempts. Berdych came close to breaking him when up 4-3, but Nadal had a pair of blistering serves to even it up at 4-4 in the third.
Then it was Nadal threatening to break Berdych, but after a couple close calls, Berdych held to go up 5-4 in the third. Berdych squandered a break opportunity after that, when Nadal had to go conservative on a second serve but Berdych overshot the return. That put it at 5-5. Berdych held serve the next time around and after a couple bad shots, Nadal was in danger. Berdych had a double match point attempt, but Nadal came back to get to deuce, and eventually forced a tiebreak.
Berdych held in the tiebreak, though it was a close one. He had a wide lead at one point, 5-1, but Nadal started to bring it back, getting it to 5-4 with Berdych in front, and with himself serving. But Berdych hit a great forehand winner to set up his third match point. Nadal came back again though, setting up a fourth match point. Berdych put it home there though, getting the win.
The top seed, Novak Djokovic, is still in the tournament and is obviously the heavy favorite with both Nadal and Roger Federer, the No. 2 seed, out. Djokovic will face No. 8 seed Milos Raonic in the quarterfinals on Wednesday (Tuesday night in the United States).
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