Rafael Nadal is through to the U.S. Open semifinals after defeating Dominic Thiem in a five-set marathon Tuesday night.

Rafael Nadal Reaches US Open Semifinals

The top-seeded Spaniard and defending champion at Arthur Ashe Stadium beat his ninth-seeded Austrian opponent 0-6, 6-4, 7-5, 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-5) in the longest contest of the 2018 U.S. Open thus far. The match lasted four hours and 49 minutes, and ended just after 2 a.m. EST.

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Nadal, 32, will next face No. 3-seeded Argentine Juan Martin del Potro in Friday’s first men’s semifinal.

The Spaniard’s victory was even more significant because he made history while reaching it. Nadal — a 17-time Grand Slam champion and three-time U.S. Open winner — is the first player in the tournament’s history to win a match after dropping the opening set 6-0, according to the Express.  Not even superstar Roger Federer — who is out of this year’s U.S. Open after losing in the fourth round — has ever been able to accomplish this.

However, Nadal is not the first tennis star to achieve this feat in a Grand Slam event. Gaston Guaudio beat Guillermo Coria at the 2004 French Open 0-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 8-6.

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Nadal appears to have the edge to beat del Potro — the 2009 U.S. Open champion — on Friday, as the Spaniard has defeated the Argentine in 11 of their previous 16 matches. Nadal eliminated del Potro in New York in 2017, and also beat him in this year’s Wimbledon and French Open tournaments.

On the women’s side, Serena Williams beat eighth-seeded Czech Karolina Pliskova 6-4, 6-3 on Tuesay to reach the semifinals, while defending champion Sloane Stephens was eliminated after losing 2-6, 3-6 to No. 19-seeded Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia.

Juan Martin del Potro ended Roger Federer’s hopes of securing a record-stretching 20th Grand Slam title and a sixth U.S. Open trophy by defeating the third-seeded Swiss 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (10-8), 6-4 in a thrilling quarterfinal at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday night, Day 10 of the the tournament.

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The 24th-seeded Argentine — who will be 29 later this month — beat Federer in the 2009 Final in Flushing Meadows, Queens and will next face World No. 1 Rafael Nadal in Friday’s second semifinal.

Tennis fans had been eagerly hoping for the first-ever US Open matchup between Federer and the top-ranked Spaniard, who advanced by eliminating Russian teenager Andrey Rublev 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 on Wednesay, but del Potro dashed those hopes.

The first men’s semifinal on Friday will see 28th-seeded South African Kevin Anderson play 12th-seeded Spaniard Pablo Carreño Busta. 

Del Potro hit big serves and huge forehands and remained concentrated when Federer appeared to regain control in the second set. In the first set, the Argentine boasted a 79 first-serve percentage.

“I think I played my best match of the tournament, I did everything well,” said del Potro. “I served so good, I hit my forehand as hard as I could and I think we played a great match and I think I deserved to win.”

Del Potro had a chance at 5-5 in the first set when Federer recorded a double fault and then smacked a strong forehand shot, with which he also took the opening set over the Swiss in the following game.

Federer — who had been suffering from back problems — barely sat during the pause between sets, and he broke for 3-1 with a forehand passing shot as del Potro’s serve began to falter, and the Swiss easily won the second set.

After del Potro regained control in the third set tie-breaker — during which Federer double-faulted in the second game — the Swiss saved another break point in the fourth game of that set, setting up one for himself in the seventh. Del Potro lost that seventh game with a double fault.

In the tie-breaker, Federer took a 6-4 lead to earn two set points, although del Potro saved them with an amazing service return on the baseline and a powerful serve.

A Del Potro double fault gave Federer another opportunity, but the Swiss messed up a backhand half-volley and the Argentine took the set with a forehand winner on the fourth set point.

After forcing Federer to hit a volley long in the final set, del Potro broke for 3-2 with an amazing cross-court backhand winner.

The sold-out crowd of 23,771 at Arthur Ashe roared when the Argentine won the match with a powerful forehand winner.

“I think it’s my home court, too, you make me feel happy every time I play here and I love your support guys. I love to see you cheer for me,” del Potro told the crowd. “After all my injuries and surgeries … New York is my favorite tournament, my favorite city to play tennis.”

 On the women’s side, all four ladies playing in this year’s semifinals are American. This marks the first time since 1985 that four U.S. women advance to the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament, and the first time four American female players reach the US Open semis since 1981.

Venus Williams, Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys and CoCo Vandeweghe have all made it through to the last four. Both women’s semifinals will be held on Thursday night and will air on ESPN.

Williams will face Stephens in the first semifinal at 7 pm EST, after the latter advanced by beating 16th-seeded Latvian Anastasija Sevastova in three sets on Tuesday.

In her last three tournaments — Toronto, Cincinnati and US Open — Stephens reached the semi-finals. Before Toronto, Stephens ranking had dropped to 934 in the world after a year of inaction. By making the last-four at Flushing Meadows, Stephens has assured that she will be back in the top-35.

The 24-year-old Stephens — who is playing in her first US Open — is also seeking her first Grand Slam title after undergoing foot surgery in January and serving as a broadcaster earlier this year as well.

No. 15 seed Keys and No. 20 seed Vandeweghe will face off in the second semi-final at 8:15 pm EST on Thursday. Keys, 22, advanced by defeating Estonian Kaia Kanepi 6-3, 6-3 on Wednesday, while 25-year-old Vandeweghe eliminated top-seeded Czech Karolína Plíšková with a 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 victory on Wednesday.

Keys underwent her second wrist surgery in 10 months after a devastating three-set loss at the French Open in May. Thursday’s game will be her second Grand Slam semifinal: she previously reached the last four at the Australian Open in 2015. Vandeweghe, meanwhile, has defeated two World No. 1 players thus far in 2017: Pliskova and German star Angelique Kerber, whom she beat in Melbourne in January.

NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 06: Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina returns a shot against Roger Federer of Switzerland during their Men’s Singles Quarterfinal match on Day Ten of the 2017 US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 6, 2017 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

Roger Federer easily eliminated German qualifier Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday to reach the US Open quarter-finals, thus inching one step closer to winning his 20th Grand Slam.

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Now, the 35-year-old third-seed from Switzerland will face Argentine No. 24 Juan Martin del Potro in Wednesday’s second quarter-final.

“The only time when he was really better, in my opinion, was the fifth set,” Federer told reporters, recalling his five-set loss to del Potro in the US Open quarter-finals in 2009.

Roger Federer reached the fourth round of the Miami Open on Monday with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over 29th-seeded Argentine Juan Martin del Potro in Key Biscayne, Florida.

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The fourth-seeded Swiss, who was playing del Potro for the first time since 2013, never lost serve and improved to 15-1 this year. Federer, 35, broke the Argentine twice, once in each set.

Federer, who now boasts 15 victories in 16 matches in 2017, next faces 14th-seeded Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut on Tuesday’s Round of 16. Agut defeated 22nd-seeded American Sam Querrey 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.

“I feel like I earned it more,” said Federer, the champion in 2005 and 2006. “I was more the aggressor. It was more my racket, and I like it that way.”

The other third-round winners in the men’s singles were Swiss top-seed Stan Wawrinka, David Goffin, Tomas Berdych, Nick Kyrgios and Alexander Zverev.

Wawrinka, who has never won the tournament, beat Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri 6-3 6-4, while 12th-seeded Australian Kyrgios defeated 17th-seeded Croatian Ivo Karlovic in a deciding tie break 6-4 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (7-2). He next faces 16th-seeded Zverev, a 19-year-old German who beat 18th-seeded American John Isner in three sets, all tie-breakers.

Czech 10th seed Berdych beat Luxembourg’s 24th-seed Gilles Muller 6-3 6-4 and will next face Frenchman Adrian Mannarino. 

On the women’s side, top-seed Angelique Kerber reached the quarterfinals by beating Japan’s Risa Ozaki, 6-2, 6-2. The German next faces 11th-seeded Venus Williams, who defeated seventh-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova , 6-3, 7-6 (4), in a matchup of former Miami Open winners. Williams last won the tournament in 2001.

One shocking women’s upset was sixth-seeded Garbine Muguruza, who retired after just one set against 12th-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark after feeling dizzy from the heat. The 23-year-old Venezuelan-born Spaniard and 2016 French Open champion was tended to by doctors after 70 minutes of play, and lost 7-6 (7-1) to Wozniacki.

“I started normal, and then like at 3-3 or something like this I started to feel headache, pain in my stomach,” said Muguruza. “And then it kind of went more and more during the match.

“When I was getting to the 5-4, something like this, I started to feel a little bit dizzy. I think it was the heat. The heat affected me suddenly like that.”

Wozniacki will next face Lucie Safarova, who beat Slovakian fourth seed Dominika Cibulkova 7-6 (7-5) 6-1.

Novak Djokovic was reduced to tears after crashing out of the Olympic Games following a stunning 7-6 7-6 first-round loss to Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro in Rio on Sunday.

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The world No. 1 Serb’s upset came just hours after Serena and Venus Williams suffered an equally-surprising defeat at the hands of the Czech Republic in first round of the women’s doubles competition.

It was the third straight Olympic loss for Djokovic and his first opening round tournament exit since 2009.

Del Potro, who had spent 40 minutes stuck in an elevator in the athletes’ village earlier Sunday, went up a level with the astounding victory.

Only three tournaments into his return from left wrist surgery, Argentine tennis player Juan Martin Del Potro will now prepare to face off against third-ranked Swiss Roger Federer in the second round of the Miami Open on Friday.

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Del Potro, 27, defeated countryman Guido Pella 6-0, 7-6 (7/4) Wednesday in his opening match at the ATP and WTA hard-court event.

Del Potro rolled through his first set in 29 minutes, Pella having as many unforced errors, 14, as points in the set. Pella battled back in the second set, saving a set point in the 10th game, but dropped three of the last four points in the tiebreaker, netting a backhand volley with the last to lose after 87 minutes.

Federer underwent knee surgery on February 3 and as a seed had a first-round bye.

“I’m going to try to play my best tennis against Roger,” Del Potro said. “We’re both coming off injuries but I think it will be a really good match.”

Del Potro, former World No. 4, is now ranked 366th due to his long injury layoff. He made it to the semifinals in last month’s Delray Beach Tournament, and was ousted in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.

Federer, who has won 17 Grand Slam singles titles, has a 15-5 career record against Del Potro. However, the Argentine defeated Federer in the 2009 US Open final. Federer had won all six matches against Del Potro before that.

It has been since the 2012 London Olympics that the pair met on an outdoor hardcourt surface like the one they will play on this Friday.

Del Potro is now headed to his eighth Miami Open. His best showing came in 2009, when he lost to the eventual champion, Scotsman Andy Murray, in the semifinals.

Federer, 34, won titles in Miami in 2005 and 2006 and this year was a finalist at Brisbane and Australian Open semi-finalist before his operation.

“It’s great to have Roger back,” top seed and defending champion Novak Djokovic said. “He is such an important player for our sport with his personality and all he has achieved in his career.”

Caption: KEY BISCAYNE, FL – MARCH 22: Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina returns a shot to Guido Pella of Argentina during the Miami Open presented by Itau at Crandon Park Tennis Center on March 23, 2016 in Key Biscayne, Florida. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)