MOSCOW, January 22. /TASS/. /TASS/. Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal defeated on Tuesday night Frances Tiafoe of the United States in the quarterfinals match of the 2019 Australian Open, which has $44.5 million in prize money up for grabs and runs between January 14 and 27.

The 32-year-old Spaniard, seeded 2nd at the tournament, stunned his unseeded 21-year-old US opponent with 6-3; 6-4; 6-2 straight sets win at the Rod Laver arena in the match that lasted 1 hour and 47 minutes.

Nadal won his sole Australian Open title ten years ago and the upcoming semifinal in Australia will be the 6th one in his career. The Spanish player holds the champion’s titles of 17 Grand Slam tournaments in men’s singles, which ranks him the second best in the history of tennis.

The semifinals opponent for Nadal is 14-seed Stefanos Tsitsipas from Greece, who knocked out from the tournament earlier in the day Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut 7-5; 4-6; 6-4; 7-6 (7-2).

Nadal and Tsitsipas previously met twice with the Spanish player winning both of the encounters. Their most recent encounter was at the ATP tournament in Canada’s Toronto in 2018, when Nadal defeated his Greek opponent in the final 6-2; 5-4.