READ MORE:<\/strong> Former Olympic gymnastics champion dies from COVID-19<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> Junior boxing champ shock contender for Newcastle Knights<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The energy seemed to drain from Nadal as he lost sets three and four, and then he took a medical timeout before returning for the fifth set.<\/p>\n He broke Shapovalov early in the fifth and then held on to win through to his seventh Australian Open semi-final.<\/p>\n Nadal was asked by Nine's Jim Courier how he managed to rally and win the match.<\/p>\n "I don't know, honestly. I was completely destroyed," Nadal said.<\/p>\n "Very tough day, very warm. Honestly I didn't practice for it.<\/p>\n Stream every match, every court of the Australian Open live and free on<\/em><\/strong> 9Now<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n "I was a little bit lucky at the beginning of the fifth. At the beginning of the match I was playing great, then… I know how difficult it is to play against a player like Denis, he is very talented, very aggressive.<\/p>\n "He was serving huge, especially on the second serve.<\/p>\n "I started to feel a bit more tired, and then he pushed me. For me it's amazing to be in the semi finals."<\/p>\n When Nadal had medical attention at the end of the fourth set, commentators speculated he either had an abdominal strain or a stomach illness.<\/p>\n He confirmed it was the latter, and he had to take medication just to make it through the fifth set.<\/p>\n He admitted he may not have been able to win the match if Shapovalov managed to break his serve at the pointy end.<\/p>\n "I started to not feel very well in my stomach, so I asked if they can do something," he said.<\/p>\n "We went inside, they took the tension, they check if everything was all right with my body. Then I took some tablets to try improve the stomach problem.<\/p>\n "I think I was lucky that I was serving great in the fifth."<\/p>\n Nadal now takes on the winner of the Gael Monfils vs Matteo Berrettini clash to be played later tonight.<\/p>\n For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tennis great Rafael Nadal believes he was "lucky" to outlast young gun challenger Denis Shapovalov in an epic five-set quarter-final. The 35-year-old Spaniard was pushed […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190462"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=190462"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":190464,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190462\/revisions\/190464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=190462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=190462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=190462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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