By Jonathan Jurejko

TOP seed Rafael Nadal was denied a place in the Australian Open semi-finals as Austria’s Dominic Thiem rattled the Spaniard with a powerful display to win a four-set thriller.

Fifth seed Thiem won 7-6(7-3), 7-6(7-4), 4-6,7-6 (8-6) at Melbourne Park.

The 26-year-old, beaten by Nadal in the past two French Open finals, missed two match points before taking a third to win in four hours and 10 minutes.

He will now face Germany’s Alexander Zverev in tomorrow’s last-four match.

It will be a first semi-final in Melbourne for both men and the winner will face either Serbia’s defending champion Novak Djokovic or Swiss third seed Roger Federer in Sunday’s final.

Thiem missed the chance to serve out the match at 5-4 in the fourth, becoming jittery with three unforced errors and a double fault as Nadal levelled despite doing little to earn it.

But Thiem regrouped to win the third tie-break of a thrilling contest against the 19-time Grand Slam champion.

“I was holding my serve great and then it came to 5-4,” Thiem said.

“That was a special situation for me, serving against Rafa for a place in the Australian Open semi-finals for the first time.

“It was a mentally tough situation but I turned it around again in the tie-breaker.”

Thiem raised both arms in the air when Nadal hit a forehand into the net on the third match point, clutching and shaking his head in what was likely to be a mixture of relief and disbelief.

Thiem has long been touted as one of the younger players ready to finally wrestle the sport’s biggest prizes from the ‘big three’ of Nadal, Djokovic and Federer, but he has not consistently challenged them across all four Grand Slams.

Known as a clay-court specialist, he has naturally gone closest to fulfilling his potential at the French Open.

He has reached the past two finals at Roland Garros, only to be hustled out of the trophy on both occasions by 12-time champion Nadal.

But Thiem has shown he also has the game to be successful on hard courts, notably by winning the prestigious Indian Wells title last year.

He has now finally proved it on one of the biggest stages against a man who had beaten him in their five previous Grand Slam meetings.

Nadal struggled to cope with Thiem’s crushing groundstrokes, being worn down in the longer rallies and unable to prevent 65 winners from his opponent.

A shank from Nadal on a third break point, at 1-1 in the fourth swung momentum back in Thiem’s direction, leaving him serving out the match at 5-4.

But he tensed up to give hope to the Spaniard that he could take the contest to a fifth set.

“There were demons in the head,” Thiem said on-court afterwards, by then now able to laugh. “Everyone has them. I was rushing too much and changing tactics from the rest of the match and that was wrong. It is tough to handle.”

Thiem said he had to “start from zero” and was able to recover to win the tense tie-break – but only after spurning his first two match points.

The first, on his serve, went a-begging when he walloped a forehand into the net.

There was more drama on the second. Nadal watched a looping return land past the baseline, but it was not called out yet Nadal coolly did not offer a shot, instead simply challenging the call in order to win the point.

Thiem was not to be denied at the third attempt, however – a chance which came after another fortunate net-cord worked in his favour. (BBC Sport)