Alexander Zverev admits victory over former champion Stan Wawrinka to reach his maiden Grand Slam semifinal at Melbourne Park has broken down an almighty barrier.
For a player who has carried more hype – more sustained burden – since bursting onto the tour as a gifted teenager, to finally pass that quarterfinal hurdle at a major is a substantial hoodoo lifted.
But the 22-year-old’s opponent – also making his maiden appearance in an Australian Open semifinal – is a little more circumspect.
With Novak Djokovic already locking in the first of the men’s singles final spots at Australian Open 2020, all eyes shift to the second semifinal showdown at Melbourne Park on Friday.
In fairness, this is a Grand Slam semifinal pundits predicted but patiently waited for, wondering if and when it would ever eventuate, given the stranglehold the Big Three have held.
Dominic Thiem, more than three years older, leads the pair’s head-to-head ledger 6-2, including their most recent clash in the semifinals of the ATP Finals last year.
He has experienced this before, although always on the slower red clay at Roland Garros, where he has reached the past two finals and two semifinals prior to that.
On Friday night, the Austrian avenged those two final defeats to world No.1 Rafael Nadal at Rod Laver Arena.
Blessed with youthful stamina, in supreme physical condition and unfurling heavy-dipping blows from all sectors of the court, the No.5 seed beat a world No.1 for the second time in four majors.
He also brought down Djokovic in Paris last year.
This though, away from his favoured clay, was telling.
Unlike Zverev, he didn’t quite see it as a barrier busted.
“Of course, that I'm for the first time in the semis of Australian Open, that's for me a barrier,” Thiem said.
“But, well, to really break a barrier, one young player has to win a Slam. Yeah, one of us is going to be in the finals, but it's still a very long way to go … I think we are still a pretty long way from overtaking or from breaking this kind of barrier.”
For Zverev, this was his first Grand Slam semifinal reached after 19 attempts so he had every reason to have viewed his barrier as far more rigid.
Winning a Grand Slam semifinal would be next but in his first showing at this stage, defeat would hardly constitute the same sizeable hurdle he had failed to clear in his previous campaigns.
“I was very impatient. In a way, also was maybe paying attention to it too much, to the Grand Slams,” the German said.
“This year I actually came into the Australian Open with absolutely no expectations because I was playing horrible. At the ATP Cup I was playing bad, and the weeks before.
“I did beat Stan just now, who is also a multiple Grand Slam champion, which gives me a little bit of confidence that I can do it … I wasn't really expecting myself in the semifinals or quarterfinals. Maybe this is a stepping stone. Maybe this is how it should happen.”
The women’s doubles title will also be decided on Friday when the top-two pairings square off.
No.1 seeds and defending Wimbledon champions Hsieh Su-Wei and Barbora Strycova meet Australian Open 2018 winners, Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic.
The Chinese Taipei-Czech duo warmed up for the season’s opening major, winning the Brisbane title and is yet to drop a set this tournament, including a semifinal victory over Czech fourth seeds Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova.
Second-seeded Hungarian-French pair Babos and Mladenovic landed a 7-5 6-2 win over Chinese Taipei sisters Latisha Chan and Chan Hao-ching to book a third straight Australian Open final berth. In addition to their trophy run two years ago, they finished runner-up to Samantha Stosur and Zhang Shuai last year.