RAFA SURVIVES DOGFIGHT WITH SHAPOVALOV, ADVANCES TO SEMIFINALS

MELBOURNE—Rafael Nadal dug deep into his immense reserve of resilience for the second match running to keep his dream of a 21st Grand Slam title alive in the Australian Open on Tuesday, as unseeded American Madison Keys reached the women’s semifinals.

Nadal raced to a two-set quarterfinal lead against Denis Shapovalov, but then began to feel unwell, needing medical attention for a stomach complaint before surviving a four-hour thriller, 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 6-3.

The Spanish sixth seed previously had to show all his experience and tenacity just to reach the quarterfinal in an epic 28-minute first set tiebreak, and he somehow found the willpower again to cross the finish line, despite being badly hampered.

“I started to feel not very well in my stomach so I just asked if they could do something,” said Nadal of calling for medical assistance. “They just checked everything was all right and then I took some tablets to try to improve the situation. It was lucky that I was serving great in the fifth.”

Veteran Frenchman Gael Monfils meets big-serving Italian Matteo Berrettini in the last eight and warned the seventh seed: “I’m not quite finished yet.”

The 35-year-old 17th seed Monfils is yet to drop a set in Melbourne while Berrettini sent down 28 aces in sweeping past Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta. The winner of this match earns the right to face Nadal for a seed in the title match.

“He’s feeling good, I’m feeling good,” said Berrettini. “It’s going to be a fight.”

Nadal won a warm-up tournament and continues to amaze even himself after being out for most of 2021 with a chronic foot injury. He then caught COVID-19 in December.

“I’m not 21 anymore!” he said. “The real truth is that two months ago we didn’t know if we will be able to be back on tour at all. It’s just a present of life that I am here playing tennis again.”

A frustrated Shapovalov smashed his racquet after losing and had a running battle with the chair umpire over the time Nadal was taking to serve, at one point calling the official “corrupt.”

Earlier at Rod Laver Arena,

Keys continued her impeccable start to the 2022 season with a straight-sets destruction of fourth seed Barbora Krejcikova to set up a potential women’s semifinal against Ashleigh Barty.

The unseeded Keys, the world No. 51, was a semifinalist in 2015 but endured a terrible 2021 where she tumbled down the rankings.

“It means a lot,” said Keys, who won, 6-3, 6-2, against the French Open champion Krejcikova, who needed medical attention in the heat during the first set. “Last year was really hard.”

She will face either Barty or a fellow American, Jessica Pegula, in Thursday’s semifinals.