Nadal's Australian Open defeat: Hands off five-set matches!

Stefanos Tsitsipas knocked Rafael Nadal down on Wednesday in the Australian Open quarterfinals.

The Spaniard won the first two sets but lost in five innings.

For Virginie Phulpin, this kind of unlikely turnaround is the beauty of tennis.  

"It's a sport that can drive you crazy. A sport where one ball, one stroke of the racket - just one - can change your destiny. It's dizzying when you think about it. Rafael Nadal was flying over his quarter-final against Stefanos Tsitsipas . Two sets to zero. The Spaniard is then an applied wrecker and master of the game against a helpless Greek promised to the sad fate of too tender victim. If there had been an audience in the stands of Melbourne, some spectators might have -being even left the stadium facing this game run in advance.

But this is where the magic, or the cruelty of tennis operates, depending on which side of the court you are on.

Decisive game in the third set.

Rafael Nadal wins the first point.

But on the second, he completely misses an easy smash.

It could only have been a twist.

But in fact, that's where it all changed.

On one point.

A failure that instills doubt in Nadal's brain, an unexpected point that suggests the possibility of hope in Tsitsipas.

You see the oratorical precautions that I take.

And yet, that changes everything.

A badly hit ball by Nadal and Stefanos Tsitsipas opened his eyes, found his legs, advanced on the court, hit harder, more accurately.

As if he began to grow on the pitch while Rafael Nadal was inexorably shrinking.

For me, that kind of moment makes tennis great.

Almost the metaphor of a life where the chance of an encounter, or an action, makes you switch to something else.

It's also a great advertisement for five-set matches ...

Can you imagine if this quarter-final was played in two winning rounds?

Rafael Nadal would have won 6-3 6-2.

Move along, nothing to see.

I have absolutely nothing against the Spaniard, on the contrary.

He didn't even look for excuses after his loss.

"No, I don't have back pain. Tsitsipas was amazing in the second part of the match. And I missed some balls that I can't miss. That's life."

Yes, that's life, it's tennis.

And that's how we want to see it.

A match is never over before the last point.

This sentence sounds a bit ridiculous.

But it is so real and that is what gives flavor to this sport where psychology and the mind are so important.

It's also when you see Rafael Nadal bow after winning the first two sets so easily that we realize even more the monumental career he is accomplishing.

It is extremely rare for a grain of sand to derail it.

Extremely rare, but possible.

This is tennis, the field of possibilities.

So to all those who are thinking about the reforms to be accomplished in tennis, do not touch the matches in five sets! "