MELBOURNE-Top-ranked Ash\u00a0Barty\u00a0built a big lead in her quarterfinal match at the Australian Open before her opponent took a medical timeout and left the court.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than an hour later, it was Barty heading abruptly through the exit. She was upset Wednesday by Karolina Muchova, 1-6, 6-3, 6-2. Seeded No. 25, Muchova earned her first semifinal berth in a Grand Slam. Her comeback win ended Barty\u2019s bid to become the first Australian woman to win the title in Melbourne since Chris O\u2019Neil in 1978. \u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking, of course,\u201d Barty said. \u201cBut the sun will come up tomorrow. You\u2019re either winning or you\u2019re learning, and today is a massive learning curve for me.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Muchova\u2019s opponent Thursday will be Jennifer Brady, who beat fellow American and good friend Jessica Pegula 4-6, 6-2, 6-1. Brady reached her second consecutive Grand Slam semifinal. \u201cI hope I make it a habit,\u201d she said. \u201cHopefully I have a new habit of making finals.\u201d Seeded 22nd, Brady struggled at times and gave her racket an angry toss midway through the second set. \u201cWe\u2019re such good friends,\u201d Brady said. \u201cI\u2019m really happy for her success. I know we\u2019ll be having a lot more tough battles.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rafael Nadal entered his Australian Open quarterfinal with a 223-1 record when grabbing the first two sets of a Grand Slam match. Thanks to his own mistakes \u2014 and some spirited play by Stefanos Tsitsipas \u2014 that mark is now 223-2. A couple of uncharacteristically sloppy overheads and a framed backhand in a third-set tiebreaker began Nadal\u2019s undoing, and his bid here for a men\u2019s-record 21st major championship eventually ended Wednesday with 3-6, 2-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4, 7-5 loss to the younger, sharper Tsitsipas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWas little bit of everything, no? I missed a couple of balls in the tiebreak that I shouldn\u2019t \u2014 that I could not \u2014 miss if I want to win. And that\u2019s it,\u201d said Nadal, who briefly left the Spanish portion of his post-match news conference after clutching at his cramping right hamstring. \u201cI have to go back home,\u201d Nadal said, \u201cand practice to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At his put-the-ball-where-he-wants-it best in the early going, Nadal went ahead rather easily, winning 27 consecutive points on his serve in one stretch and running his streak of consecutive sets won at major tournaments to 35, one shy of Roger Federer\u2019s record for the professional era. Nadal and Federer are currently tied at 20 Grand Slam singles titles, more than any other man in the history of a sport that dates to the late 1800s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Tsitsipas never wavered and that surprisingly poor tiebreaker by Nadal helped hand over the third set and begin the comeback. Nadal made a total of only 10 unforced errors in the first two sets combined, then 32 the rest of the way \u2014 11 in the third, 14 in the fourth, seven in the fifth.Tsitsipas will meet 2019 US Open runner-up Daniil Medvedev in the semifinals Friday. Neither Tsitsipas nor Medvedev has won a Grand Slam tournament. Russian Daniil Medvedev outclassed friend and compatriot Andrey Rublev 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 in sweltering conditions to secure a spot in the Australian Open semi-finals and extend his winning streak to 19 matches. Next up for the ATP Finals winner will be a last-four meeting against either Spaniard Rafa Nadal or Stefanos Tsitsipas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Russian qualifier Aslan Karatsev will meet world number one Novak Djokovic in the other semi-final on Thursday, with the prospect of an all-Russian men\u2019s final looming on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MELBOURNE-Top-ranked Ash\u00a0Barty\u00a0built a big lead in her quarterfinal match at the Australian Open before her opponent took a medical timeout and left the court.\u00a0 More than an hour later, it was Barty heading abruptly through the exit. She was upset Wednesday by Karolina Muchova, 1-6, […]<\/p>\n
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