MELBOURNE: Rafael Nadal has joined Roger Federer on the sidelines at the Australian Open, taking their combined 31 Grand Slam singles titles with them.

Iron-willed Czech Tomas Berdych ended eight years of tyranny under nemesis Nadal to storm into the Australian Open semi-finals on Tuesday, while Maria Sharapova showed who’s boss by slapping down Eugenie Bouchard.

Nadal’s lack of match fitness from nearly six months of injuries and illness finally caught up with the 14-time major champion in his quarter-final match 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) before his next opponent Andy Murray restored British colonial rule to the floodlit centre court.

Sharapova inflicted another Grand Slam reality check on Bouchard and will play an all-Russian semi-final against plucky lefthander Ekaterina Makaraova, who thrashed third seed Simona Halep, on a surprising day at Melbourne Park.

In the evening session, Murray struck back for the old guard, slapping down local teenager Nick Kyrgios 6-3, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 to deflate home fans pumped up by the traditional sporting rivalry with former colonial masters Britain.

But it was Nadal’s humbling on an unseasonably cold summer’s day that rocked Melbourne Park to its core and shook the biggest monkey in the men’s game off the back of Berdych.

The big-serving Czech’s 17-match losing streak to the Spaniard was the equal-longest in the professional era and snapping it was the result of a perfectly executed plan.

MELBOURNE: Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic celebrates his stunning victory over Spain’s Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open on Tuesday.—AFP

“Oh, it feels great,” Berdych told reporters. “Everything was working. I was able to execute it really well.”

In an intriguing twist, the man that helped Berdych create the master plan was Dani Vallverdu, Murray’s former hitting partner and assistant coach, who parted ways with the Scot in November.

Now in Berdych’s camp, Vallverdu will provide the intelligence for preparations against Murray. On the strength of Berdych’s tournament, the Venezuelan has been a roaring success, with the Czech not dropping a set.

The rangy 29-year-old was irresistible in the first two sets against Nadal, wrapping them up in exactly an hour and giving the Spaniard his first grand slam bagel since the 2006 Wimbledon final against Federer who departed Melbourne Park after an upset third-round loss to Andrea Seppi.

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.”

Black-clad Murray was all business against brash 19-year-old Kyrgios and needed to be for much of a high-quality encounter on a chilly, windy evening.

Kyrgios lifted to bring the crowd into the equation, but Murray rose with him, closing out the match with a barrage of scintillating winners.

“I tried to start as quickly as possible because I know how dangerous he is,” Murray said courtside of his opponent, who dumped Nadal from Wimbledon on the way to the last eight. “I have seen his matches for the last 18 months... So I wasn’t going to underestimate him.”

It was a performance that Sharapova would have approved of after her 78-minute 6-3, 6-2 rout of another young upstart in Canadian Bouchard.

Sharapova, who also dumped Bouchard out of the French Open semis last year, gave no quarter on Rod Laver Arena, hitting 18 winners and forcing 30 unforced errors from the 20-year-old.

“I felt pretty good from the start, didn’t feel I had too many letdowns,” Sharapova said, adding that her close call in the second round — facing two match points against a qualifier — sharpened her focus for the rest of the tournament.

She now faces Makarova, who raced through her match against Halep, thrashing the more-fancied Romanian 6-4, 6-0. The 26-year-old Makarova, who describes herself as shy off-court, blew the nerve-stricken Halep away and has not lost a set all tournament.

She heads into her clash with Sharapova fresh and in top form. “I’m not shy on the tennis court. It’s a big stage,” she said. “I never beat Sharapova, so it will be tough.”

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2015

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