World No.2 Rafael Nadal will play great rival Roger Federer in an Australian Open semi-final after his comeback victory over seventh seed Tomas Berdych.
Federer took less than two hours to outclass Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro in straight sets earlier on Wednesday.
But ferociously competitive Spaniard Nadal, who had succumbed to injury at the quarter-final stage in the previous two years, had to fight much harder to outlast big-serving Czech Berdych 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 6-3 in four hours 16 minutes on Wednesday night.
Nadal’s semi-final against Federer will be the first time since the 2005 French Open they have met as early as the semi-final stage of a grand slam event.
Since then, they have met eight times in grand slam finals, with Nadal winning six of those, including the past four.
While Federer is in superb form, Nadal will enter their clash having shown he is up for a fight.
The first set alone against Berdych lasted 75 minutes, with the Czech winning the tiebreaker in dramatic fashion.
The pivotal moment came at 5-5, when Nadal was angered at being ruled to have waited too long to challenge the “in” call on a Berdych shot, which had actually sailed long.
The Czech was given the point and served out the set with an ace.
Berdych took momentum into the second set tiebreaker, after Nadal unsuccessfully tried to serve out the set at 5-3, during which game he also copped an umpire’s decision he was unhappy with and spent the subsequent change of ends complaining about.
But after both players failed to win their first set points in the tiebreaker, Nadal eventually levelled the match – already two hours and 26 minutes long – when Berdych sent a forehand long.
Nadal appeared to benefit from some sideline coaching to gain the decisive break of serve in the third set, his coach and uncle Toni Nadal seemingly gesturing for him to step further forward on return, which he did to clinch the fifth game.
After winning that set, Nadal surged clear, clinching a break in the opening game of the fourth set with a sensational running forehand winner, then closing out the match with another break to love.
