Four-time champion Novak Djokovic’s 25-match Australian Open winning streak has been brought to a stunning end by sweet-hitting Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka.
Wawrinka, who went agonisingly close to ending Djokovic’s Melbourne Park dominance in a marathon five-setter last year, this time outlasted the world No.2 Serb 2-6 6-4 6-2 3-6 9-7 in exactly four hours.
It puts the eighth seed into a semi-final against Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych, who earlier pulled off a minor upset of his own, downing world No.3 David Ferrer in four sets.
Both are first-time Australian Open semi-finalists.
Djokovic had won the past three Opens, to go with his 2008 triumph, and was the hot favourite to take the title for a fifth time.
Instead, his partnership with his new head coach and former world No.1 Boris Becker is off to a disappointing start.
It’s the first time in 15 grand slam events the Serb has failed to make at least the semi-finals.
The title hopes of Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray – all on the opposite side of the draw – will climb, given the finalist from their half will face an opponent who has never won a major.
While Wawrinka’s win was an upset, it wasn’t a complete shock.
The hard-hitting Swiss was the only player to take Djokovic to five sets last year at Melbourne Park, going down 12-10 in the fifth in a five-hour fourth-rounder.
But the Serb had won 14 matches straight against Wawrinka before Tuesday night and seemed set to make it 15 when he won four games straight to clinch the first set.
Wawrinka hit back hard.
The turning point was the second set’s seventh game, when Wawrinka broke Djokovic’s serve for the first time.
He clinched the break on a spectacular 26-shot rally, in which the players traded scorching baseline shots, capped by a blistering Wawrinka backhand winner.
Wawrinka continued the barrage, while Djokovic’s game began to wilt, the Serb’s unforced error rate growing as the Swiss won five games straight on the way to winning the third set.
Djokovic dug deep in the fourth set and was rewarded with a Wawrinka slip-up at a crucial stage.
Serving at 3-4 and deuce, the Swiss let a Djokovic shot float by, which he could have volleyed, and it landed in to set up break point, which the Serb converted, before serving out the set.
The Serb picked up another break in the third game of the decider but handed it back immediately with a string of soft errors.
Late in the set, Djokovic was barely troubled on serve, until at 30-30 and 7-8, he produced two horror forehand errors in succession to decide the match.
“I’m really, really, really, really happy,” was an exhausted Wawrinka’s immediate reaction.
He admitted the final games were a struggle, as he fought off muscle fatigue, exacerbated by a five-minute rain break during the 12th game of the last set.
“I was cramping a little bit because for sure it was a tough one, but also I was really nervous,” he said.
“It’s never easy to deal with that. Now I’m going to go into an ice bath for a long, long time.”
He said recovering physically would be a key to his semi-final chances against Berdych.
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