As a relentless Rafael Nadal blitzed Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets to reach the Australian Open final, it was tempting to quickly run down to the Rod Laver Arena court and touch the surface to check that it was not in fact clay they were playing on.
It is hard to recall such a dominant performance from Nadal, the “King of Clay”, on a hard court in recent years. Coming into this tournament, the 17-times grand slam champion from Spain had withdrawn before or retired during 16 of his past 17 events on hard courts since October 2017 because of a variety of injury issues. But suddenly, here in Melbourne, he is a raging bull once again, annihilating anyone in his path.
Tsitsipas, the 20-year-old
