By Chris Oddo | Wednesday January 25, 2017
An inspired Rafael Nadal joined his old rival Roger Federer in this year’s Australian Open semifinals by notching a 6-4, 7-6(7), 6-4 victory over No.3-seeded Milos Raonic on Thursday night in Melbourne.
More: Dimitrov Cruises Past Goffin and Into Semis
Nadal wins for the seventh time in nine matches against the Canadian and avenges a loss from two weeks ago in the Brisbane quarterfinals. The Spaniard returns to the semifinals at a major for the first time since the 2014 French Open with his win.
“I think I had a great career but at the same time I had a lot of tough moments,” Nadal told Jim Courier on the court after the match. “That makes me enjoy even more the good moments that I am having today.”
Nadal was in command for much of the first two sets, and when Raonic went off for an injury timeout after the fifth game of the second set it looked like he may wither in the night. But the Canadian put up his best fight not much later, earning three set points with Nadal serving at 4-5, and then another three in a second-set tiebreaker that saw an inspired Nadal power through thanks to clutch shotmaking and a little help from Raonic.
How did Nadal do it?
“As always, I don’t know,” he joked. “Just fighting, and believing. Just try to win the next point.”
Nadal threw a few noticeable wrinkles into his gameplan on Thursday, as he returned from further inside the court in an attempt to take away more of Raonic’s time. He also did a wonderful job of keeping Raonic from striking his lethal inside-out forehand.
With Carlos Moya, who coached Raonic last year and who now works with Nadal and was sitting with Nadal’s Uncle and coach Toni in the box, Nadal seems to be a bit more adaptable from a tactical perspective.
“I decided to go a little bit more in the court on the return tonight,” Nadal said.
Nevertheless, Raonic had a very good chance to draw even in the middle set, but failed to produce any magic on his set points. Afterwards, he didn't sound like he believed he could have won the match, even if he had prevailed in set two.
“There were some opportunities in that second set,” Raonic said. “Other than that, there wasn't much for me to hold onto. I thought he did some things well. I thought, you know, he took the match to me. He did something a little bit different than he normally does. He played better than I did.”
Raonic set up a pair of set points in the second-set breaker with a gorgeous lob, but Nadal snuffed out the first with a big serve. It was Raonic who contributed to his own demise by double-faulting on the next. He would earn a third and err on a forehand to bring Nadal level at 7-all.
“I think the first two, he hit one good serve well, and the other one I didn't cover the serve I should have covered,” Raonic said. “Then after that I think I rushed in that tiebreaker. I made two pretty poor mistakes off balls that didn't have much in the middle of the court on my forehand side. I think at that point I just put it a little bit too much on myself.”
In the third Nadal kept pressuring and finally broke through at love with Raonic serving to stay alive in the match. The Spaniard claimed the straight-sets victory in two hours and 44 minutes. It was one that saw him in top form, both technically and tactically.
Raonic lamented his fate, including a new adductor injury that has been plaguing him this season (he said he has had troubles with the injury from Brisbane). But that didn’t stop him from appreciating Nadal’s form and the myriad storylines that have compelled on the men’s side at this year’s Australian Open.
“He's doing a lot of things well,” Raonic said of Nadal. “He's fighting well, which has always been his strongest attribute. It's going to be an interesting two more matches, one more match, depending on how he goes. But from everything, it's going to be an interesting three more matches to follow. There's a lot of storylines there.”
Nadal will next face Grigor Dimitrov in the semifinals. Dimitrov rolled past David Goffin and into his second career major semifinal earlier in the day. In their last meeting the Bulgarian snapped a seven-match losing streak against Nadal.
“Grigor is a great player,” said Nadal. “He started the season unbelievable… I know I’m going to have a very tough match."
Roger Federer will face Stan Wawrinka in the other men's semifinal, set for tomorrow evening on Rod Laver Arena. ”