Latest update April 7th, 2025 12:08 AM
Nadal ousted, as Sharapova powers on
MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — Rafael Nadal’s Australian Open dream lay in tatters with the third seed crushed by Tomas Berdych in the
Russia’s Maria Sharapova celebrates after victory in her women’s singles match against Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard on day nine of the 2015 Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne. (PHOTOS: AFP)
quarter-finals, but Maria Sharapova showed who’s boss by slapping down Eugenie Bouchard.
The out-of-sorts Spaniard, a 14-time Grand Slam champion, was never in contention against a player he had beaten the last 17 times they met stretching back to 2006. The Czech seventh seed insisted ahead of the match that the imposing statistic meant little and he came out of the blocks firing, winning 6-2, 6-0, 7-6 (7/5) despite a mini Nadal revival in the third set.
“I was definitely ready for it and set up my plan pretty well and I stuck with that through those three sets,” said Berdych, who also made the semis last year, losing to eventual champion Stan Wawrinka.
The upset pits him against Andy Murray for a place in the final, with the experienced British sixth seed a step too far for brash Australian teenager Nick Kyrgios, who lost 6-3, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3.
Nadal had no excuses, admitting he played “a very bad” match.
“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. “The season is long, beginnings are tough. I need to be ready to accept all the situations that happen and try to be strong.”
Murray, a three-time runner-up at Melbourne Park, was too composed for Kyrgios, but said he was taking nothing for granted against Berdych. “Maybe I won’t play well in a couple of days; maybe I play great.
Spain’s Rafael Nadal watches the ball during his men’s singles match against Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych on day nine of the 2015 Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne.
I don’t know,” he said. “But I’ve given myself a good opportunity again, and hopefully I can use it to my advantage.”
In contrast to Nadal’s lacklustre performance, the experienced Sharapova dominated young Canadian pretender Bouchard to set up an all-Russian semi-final 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.
“She’s been playing so well at Slams, so confident and so aggressive,” said the Russian, gunning for a sixth Grand Slam crown and her first in Australia since 2008. “I just really tried to take that away from her a little bit. I did a great job of that today.”
Sharapova, who also dumped Bouchard out of the French Open semi-finals last year, gave no quarter on Rod Laver Arena, hitting 18 winners and forcing 30 unforced errors from the 20-year-old. She now faces Makarova, who raced through her match against third seed Simona Halep, thrashing the more-fancied Romanian 6-4, 6-0.
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