World number one tennis player Rafael Nadal crashed out of the quarter-finals of the Australian Open after losing to Dominic Thiem in a four-set thriller at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne on Wednesday.
The 19-time Grand Slam champion who was on his way to register his second Australian Open win and getting closer to Roger Feder's majors tally went down fighting in the fourth set of the fixture. The Austrian youngster, on the other hand, was looking pretty much disciplined as he delivered a clinical performance to win over the 33-year-old Spaniard.
Thiem delivered a clinical display
Thiem won all of his three sets after player the tiebreakers as the scoreboard read 7-6, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 for the Austrian at the end of the match. The Spaniard made a good comeback in the third set of the match and even after Thiem converted a breakpoint Nadal pulled one back breaking Thiem's serve when the latter was on the verge of sealing the fixture.
But the efforts of the Spaniard went in vain as the Australian tennis player eventually turned out to be the winner of the fixture. Thiem will next face Alexander Zverev in the semi-finals and will look forward to registering his first Grand Slam victory.
On the other hand, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are going to fight out in a much-anticipated semi-final clash on Thursday. The duo will play their 50th match against one another which Djokovic leads by 26-23.
