Rafael Nadal counts to 30, joining Federer, Djokovic, Connors on big list
The 17-time Grand Slam champion had an excellent 2018 season, winning the Roland Garros and four other titles, also reaching the semi-final at Wimbledon and the US Open to stay at the top of the rankings for most of the year. Nonetheless, Rafa struggled a lot to deliver his best tennis on hard courts, dealing with multiple injuries and skipping many tournaments that in the end cost him the year-end no. 1 position. Staying away from the court between September and January, Rafa entered the Australian Open with big hopes and improved serve that allowed him to change his game entirely and play more aggressively, especially with the first groundstroke.
The results were evident, with the 2009 Melbourne champion reaching the semi-final without losing a set or spending too much time on the court, which often wasn't the case in the past. Following wins over the Aussie squad that includes James Duckworth, Matthew Ebden and Alex de Minaur (his 250th Grand Slam win), Rafa saved a set point against Tomas Berdych in the fourth round before he took down Frances Tiafoe to secure the lace in the last four, reaching his 30th Grand Slam semi-final to join an exclusive list of players.
This is the sixth semi-final appearance for Rafa in Melbourne, becoming the seventh player in the Open era who did that and only the third after Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic with at least six semi-finals at all four Majors. On the overall list, Roger Federer is miles in front of everyone else with 43 Grand Slam semi-finals, although he has failed to reach any since the last year's Australian Open. Novak Djokovic has closed the gap to just nine now, standing on 34, three more ahead of Jimmy Connors who will almost surely be passed by Rafa in the rest of the season.
After a poor run in 2015 and 2016 when he failed to reach the Grand Slam semi-final for the first time in consecutive years since 2003-04, Rafa has reached the last four in seven of the previous nine Majors played and he should catch Jimmy Connors' number already at Roland Garros where he was the semi-finalist 11 times in the past! The list of players with the most Grand Slam semi-finals reached:
43 - Roger Federer 34 - Novak Djokovic 31 - Jimmy Connors 30 - Rafael Nadal 28 - Ivan Lendl 26 - Andre Agassi
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2RbrnFU
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