Murray sends Kyrgios packing; Sharapova downs Bouchard
MELBOURNE: Czech Tomas Berdych ended a demoralizing run of outs to dump a struggling Rafael Nadal out of the Australian Open in a straight sets triumph to reach the semifinals on Tuesday.
The seventh seed finally mastered the Spanish 14-time Grand Slam champion 6-2, 6-0, 7-6 (7/5) in 2hr 13min and will face either Britain’s Andy Murray or Australian Nick Krygios for a place in the final.
It ended a record-equalling 17-match winning run Nadal had over Berdych, who claimed his second consecutive semifinal appearance in Melbourne after losing to Stan Wawrinka last year.
Only Bjorn Borg over Vitas Gerulaitis and Ivan Lendl against Tim Mayotte had chalked up 17-match head-to-head winning streaks on the ATP Tour.
“I was definitely ready for it and set up my plan pretty well and I stuck with that through those three sets,” Berdych said.
“I was expecting a very tough battle but I was ready for everything.”
Nadal’s miserable performance was just statistically better than his worst Grand Slam result. He won only eight games, two more than the six games he took off Juan Martin del Potro in the semifinal at the 2009 US Open.
The world number three also failed to win a game in the second set for his first ‘bagel’ at a Grand Slam since against Roger Federer in the 2006 Wimbledon final and Andy Roddick in the second round at the 2004 US Open.
It was a big start to the new season for Berdych and his new coach Dani Vallverdu, who formerly was part of the Andy Murray team.
Nadal, who won the Australian title in 2009 and was a beaten finalist last year, looked out of sorts and his serve was broken five times to fall behind two sets to love.
Berdych swooped on the misfiring Spaniard, reeling off a backhand return winner for the second set after just one hour on court.
Nadal lost nine straight games before he held service in the second game of the third set, with plenty of concerned looks in his player box courtside as the errors kept flowing off his racquet.
Nadal competed more in the third set which went to a tiebreaker but Berdych’s sledgehammer forehand was decisive.
Rafa offers no excuses for ‘very bad’ defeat
Rafael Nadal did not look for excuses after a limp Australian Open exit.Asked about his ‘so-so’ match, Nadal quickly corrected the reporter: “No, not a so-so game today, it was very bad. You can say that, no problem.
“I am not very happy because I didn’t compete the way I wanted to compete in the first two sets and that’s something that I don’t like,” he said.
Despite losing Nadal, who entered the tournament following a three-month injury layoff, said he would take some positives out of the first Grand Slam tournament of the season.
“I have to take the positive things. Without being at my top level of tennis I was able to get to the quarter-finals,” he said, referring to the right wrist injury that kept him out of action.
“It’s not a bad result at all for me arriving here with only with five matches in seven months.
Meanwhile, British sixth seed Andy Murray proved too experienced for Australian teenager Nick Kyrgios, winning in straight sets to reach the Australian Open semifinals on Tuesday.
Murray, a three-time runner-up, downed the 19-year-old 6-3, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 in 2hr 5min and will face seventh seed Czech Tomas Berdych for a place in the final.
The Scot was too composed and steady for the exciting 19-year-old and took his record over Australian players to 11-0 before a partisan home crowd.
Murray grabbed three service breaks and only conceded a service break deep in the final set to underline his dominance over the 53rd-ranked Kyrgios.
He hit 48 winners and just 28 unforced errors, while serving 13 aces and winning 80 percent of his first serves.
In another match, the experienced Maria Sharapova slapped down young pretender Eugenie Bouchard on Tuesday, dominating the ambitious Canadian to set up an all-Russian Australian Open semifinal with dark horse Ekaterina Makarova.
The world number two, who could claim the top ranking from arch-rival Serena Williams if she wins the title, showed her intent by breaking the seventh seed in the first game of the match and never looked back.
Billed as a Glam Slam showdown between two of the game’s most marketable women, an intense Sharapova was all business in the crushing 6-3, 6-2 win on a cool, overcast Melbourne day.
She now faces Makarova, who raced through her match against third seed Simona Halep, thrashing the more-fancied Romanian 6-4, 6-0. (Agencies)