World number 1, Rafael Nadal has been knocked out of the Australian Open, by a resurgent Dominic Thiem.
Dominc Thiem who was in the best form of his life took advantage of a mid-match meltdown to hold off the world number one to win in four sets.
Nadal came close to forcing a fifth set, breaking Thiem’s serve at 5-4 in the fourth set as the Austrian double-faulted and made three unforced forehand errors.
But the Spaniard then lost a third tiebreak and thus the match, 7-6(3) 7-6(4) 4-6 7-6(6).
Excited Thiem said in his post-match speech: “It’s a little bit demons in the head, like Roger (Federer) said. It’s true. Everybody has it.”
“I was rushing way too much. Changing a little bit tactic from all the match. That was wrong.
“Then of course it’s very tough to handle if you are out of five-all against Rafa. Match starts from zero again.
“That’s tennis. You have to deal with the situations. Almost every single game. So I’m very happy that I won the tie-break.”
Thiem will now face his friend Alexander Zverev in the semi-finals, as this year finals of the Australian Open is guaranteed a first-timer.
