Rafael Nadal is keeping his fingers crossed he will be able to play in the Australian Open after needing medical treatment during a gruelling loss to Jordan Thompson at his comeback tournament.
Nadal looked poised to claim another straight-sets win at the Brisbane International when he brought up a first match point in the 10th game of the second set but missed a backhand overhead.
Two more chances followed in the tie-break but Nadal was unable to take either and Australian Thompson fought back to claim a 5-7 7-6 (6) 6-3 victory after three hours and 25 minutes.
More concerning was the off-court medical time-out Nadal took at 1-4 in the deciding set, although he was able to continue without too much apparent discomfort.
The 37-year-old had surgery on the psoas tendon in his left hip in June after being sidelined since suffering an injury at last January’s Australian Open and revealed the latest problem is in the same area.
“I feel the muscle tired,” he told reporters in Brisbane.
“I mean, for sure it’s not the same like last year at all because when it happened I felt something drastic immediately. Today I didn’t feel anything. The only problem is because the place is the same, you are a little bit more scared than usual.
“I need to see how I wake up tomorrow morning. We have been talking these last days, talking about the positive things. That’s why I am not over-positive when I have been talking.
“I have been talking with a lot of precaution because I know after a year is difficult for the body to be playing tournaments at the highest level. When the things are becoming more difficult, you don’t know how your body is going to react.
“I hope it is not important and I hope to have the chance to be practising next week and to play Melbourne. Honestly, I am not 100 per cent sure of anything now.”
Thompson will take on second seed Grigor Dimitrov in the semi-finals, while top seed Holger Rune faces Russian Roman Safiullin.
In the women’s event, top seed Aryna Sabalenka continued to look sharp in a 6-1 6-4 victory over Daria Kasatkina, her 14th straight win in Australia, while second seed Elena Rybakina was a set up on Anastasia Potapova when the Russian retired.
Sabalenka will take on fellow Belarusian Victoria Azarenka in the last four after she battled past Jelena Ostapenko, while Czech Linda Noskova won the battle of the teenagers against 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva.
At the ASB Classic in Auckland, defending champion Coco Gauff and second seed Elina Svitolina both eased into the semi-finals, while Alexander Zverev defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas to help Germany defeat Greece in the United Cup quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, Harriet Dart reached the biggest final of her career at the WTA 125 event in Canberra, battling to a 7-5 3-6 7-5 victory over American Katie Volynets, and Heather Watson is through to the doubles final in Brisbane with Belgian Greet Minnen.
Sinner and Berrettini send defending champions Italy into Davis Cup final
Jannik Sinner's victory over Alex de Minaur clinched Italy's place in another Davis Cup final, with Matteo Berrettini also victorious as the defending champions beat Australia 2-0.
Italy won the Davis Cup for the first time since 1976 last year, and they will have an opportunity to defend their crown against the Netherlands on Sunday.
Former Wimbledon finalist Berrettini got the ball rolling with an entertaining 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 7-5 victory over Thanasi Kokkinakis, not surrendering a break after losing the opener in a tie-break.
That teed up Sinner to close out Italy's victory, with the world number one overcoming De Minaur 6-3 6-4, the same scoreline he beat the Australian by at the ATP Finals earlier this month.
Speaking after his victory in Malaga, Sinner said: "It means a lot. It was a tough encounter, playing Alex. We know each other quite well now, so I have to be very careful every time.
"It's a very tough challenge for me, so I was looking forward to this one. Obviously, it helped a lot that Matteo won the singles today. He played amazing tennis. It was very high quality.
"Hopefully, this can give us some confidence for [Sunday]. It's going to be a very difficult and tough day for us and also the Netherlands."
Data Debrief: Back-to-back for Italy
Italy's men are looking to follow in the footsteps of their female counterparts, who won the Billie Jean King Cup earlier this week.
They are just the third nation in history to make back-to-back finals at both the Davis Cup and the Federation/Billie Jean King Cup, after the United States (1963-64, 1978-79, 1981-82 and 1990-91) and Australia (1963-64 and 1964-65).
Djokovic appoints Murray as coach for Australian Open
Novak Djokovic has announced his long-term former rival Andy Murray as his coach for the Australian Open in 2025.
Murray, a three-time Grand Slam winner, announced his retirement earlier this year and played his final match at the Paris Olympics in August.
He will join Djokovic's team in the off-season and coach him through the opening grand slam of the year, which begins on January 12.
This will be Murray's first coaching role since retiring following a 19-year career.
"We played each other since we were boys. 25 years of being rivals, of pushing each other beyond our limits," Djokovic said in a video on social media.
"We had some of the most epic battles in our sport. They called us game changers, risk-takers, history makers.
"I thought our story may be over - turns out it has one final chapter.
"It's time for one of my toughest opponents to step into my corner. Welcome onboard coach, Andy Murray."
Djokovic failed to win a major title for the first time since 2017, though he did clinch a long-awaited Olympic gold medal in Paris.
The Serb is currently level with Margaret Court for the most major singles titles by any player. He has a good record in Australia though, winning 10 times in Melbourne, beating Murray in four of those finals.
Murray, who beat Djokovic to win the US Open title in 2012 and Wimbledon the following year, says he hopes they can achieve success together.
"I'm going to be joining Novak's team in the off-season, helping him to prepare for the Australian Open," Murray said.
"I'm really excited for it and looking forward to spending time on the same side of the net as Novak for a change, helping him to achieve his goals."
Griekspoor heroics send the Netherlands to historic Davis Cup final
Tallon Griekspoor produced a thrilling comeback to help the Netherlands reach the Davis Cup final for the very first time after they downed Germany 2-0 in Malaga.
After losing the opening set to Jan-Lennard Struff, Griekspoor held his nerve to emerge a 4-6 (4-7) 7-5 6-4 victor on an enthralling day of action on Friday.
Earlier in the day, Botic van de Zandschulp, who beat Rafael Nadal in the final match of the Spaniard's career on Tuesday, put the Dutch 1-0 up with a win over Daniel Altmaier.
The world number 80 needed 10 match points to wrap up a tense 6-4 6-7 (12-14) 6-3 victory, after Altmaier saved five break points in a second set tie-break.
Griekspoor then stopped the best-of-three tie from going to the deciding doubles, rallying back with a fine display, though Struff let two crucial break points slip in the eighth game of the second set.
“We have been talking about this [moment] for two or three years,” said Griekspoor.
“We came here all the time with unbelievably tough draws, but we believed in ourselves so much. We always felt like this was possible.
"To do it now feels unbelievable. I am so happy for the team, and for Holland.
“I just tried to focus on my own game. I felt like he was playing unbelievable tennis, I didn’t do much wrong in the first set.
"I’m super proud of myself, super proud of the effort and very happy to get the win in the end.”
The Netherlands await either reigning Davis Cup champions Italy or Australia, who face off in the other semi-final on Saturday.
Data Debrief: Dutch delight
After reaching the semi-final stage for only the second time this century, the Netherlands produced arguably their finest display of the tournament against Germany.
It meant that after 185 ties played at the event across a 104-year timeframe, they had finally reached the showpiece match at the tournament for the first time.
But their victory was made possible by Griekspoor, who converted both his break points, while fittingly sealing his encounter with his 25th ace of the contest.
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