Asanka Brendon Ratnayake for The New York Times
MELBOURNE, Australia — There was nothing Stefanos Tsitsipas could do.
He tried pressing forward, only to see Rafael Nadal’s whizzing replies fly beyond his reach.
He tried staying patient, only to find himself being run across the baseline like a jack rabbit with a one-handed backhand.
He tried simply to hang on, hoping against hope that his legendary opponent would grant an opening, a reprieve, a string of games, maybe a set. Nadal did no such thing.
On Thursday night, Nadal once again provided every hard-hitting answer in a match at this tournament against an upstart opponent.