Australian Open 2022: Rafa Nadal survives Denis Shapovalov

Rafa Nadal has drawn within two wins of a record 21st Grand Slam title, claiming a five-set thriller against Denis Shapovalov to grind into the Australian Open semi-finals on Tuesday (January 25). On a steamy afternoon at Rod Laver Arena, the warrior Spaniard suffered a huge scare as Shapovalov roared back from two sets down before bowing out 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 6-3 after four taxing hours.

After dropping the fourth set, Nadal marshalled his resources off court with a medical time-out then returned to break Shapovalov in the second game to wrest back the momentum. Channelling the experience of 20 Grand Slam titles, Nadal kept the Canadian at arm’s length then sealed one of his great wins when Shapovalov pushed a volley wide and ended up smashing his racket into the court in anguish.

Australian Open chief Craig Tiley said the Novak Djokovic saga will not define the 2022 tournament but that he regrets how the volatile situation took the focus off the Grand Slam and players leading up to the Melbourne Park major.

The 34-year-old Serb was deported from Australia after an 11-day rollercoaster involving two visa cancellations, two court challenges and five nights in two stints at an immigration detention hotel where asylum seekers are held. Tennis Australia CEO Tiley, also tournament director of the year`s first major, came under fire after Djokovic, who was not vaccinated for COVID-19, was told he could play at the Australian Open with a medical exemption.

The decision to grant nine-times champion Djokovic entry outraged many in Australia, which is battling its worst surge of infections and where the adult vaccination rate is more than 90 per cent. The controversy completely overshadowed the build-up to the tournament but Tiley said his team deserved credit for managing to bring in over 3,500 participants from overseas amid the highly infectious Omicron variant.

“In the lead-in there was meticulous planning,” Tiley told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. “The one major challenge around the Djokovic situation doesn’t define everything that went on because 99.999% of everything was good. It has been very challenging and we’re delivering an event in the middle of a very infectious strain. The tennis has been awesome. It’s going to be a really good finish.”

Multiple Australian news outlets called on the TA board to fire Tiley over the episode. “I do have a regret and the regret I have is actually different,” said Tiley, adding that he expected Djokovic to return in 2023. “The regret is the distraction that this whole scenario in this challenging environment created.

“We had over 500 players that were here, were ready to play and wanted the focus back on the tennis and wanted the focus to go back on them. We all wanted to move on and put that behind us so we can focus on the tennis. Of course there’s going to be lessons that we can learn but we do that every year. We do a full review after the event which we’ll do again this year. We’ll see what we did well, we’ll see what we could improve as we plan to 2023.”