Just as ‘‘nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row’’, no man can deny Tomas Berdych on 18 straight occasions either.

Not even the great Rafael Nadal.

‘‘Well, no,’’ Berdych beamed after handing Nadal one of the heaviest defeats of his celebrated grand slam career to send the 14-times major winner crashing out of the Australian Open on Tuesday.

In a spectacular reversal after enduring a ‘‘record’’ 17 straight losses to the champion Spaniard, Berdych humbled Nadal 6-2 6-0 7-6 (7-5) in a quarter-final boilover at Melbourne Park.

‘‘I was ready for everything and that was the biggest difference,’’ Berdych said.

‘‘We set up a plan very well and I stuck to it for three sets.’’

Another defeat to his decade-long nemesis and Berdych would have been the first player in 47 years of professional men’s tennis to lose 18 consecutive matches to a rival.

If he didn’t quite draw inspiration from Gerulaitis’ famous 1979 quote after finally ending years of misery at the hands of fellow American Jimmy Connors, Berdych admitted he sure knew of the classic line.

In avoiding an inglorious place in the history books, the imposing Czech instead joined Jo-Wilfried Tsonga as only the second man to claim the grand slam scalps of tennis’s so-called big four - Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.

Meanwhile, Maria Sharapova needed only 78 minutes to see off the challenge from the seventh-seeded Canadian Eugenie Bouchard 6-3 6-2 on Tuesday, to set up the first all-Russian grand slam semi-final since 2009.

Her opponent on Thursday will be 10th seed Ekaterina Makarova, who did a demolition job on world No 3 Simona Halep from Romania, winning 6-3 6-0.

The second-seeded Sharapova made only 18 unforced errors, compared to 30 from the racquet of the erratic Bouchard.

Makarova is in career-best form, having reached the final four at a major for the first time at last year’s US Open.

The 26-year-old jumped the Romanian at the start of each set and never let her back into the contest, winning in 69 minutes to reach her first semi at Melbourne Park. - AAP