World number two Rafael Nadal has powered his way into the 2012 Australian Open Men’s Singles Semi-Finals and a showdown with old foe Roger Federer following his marathon four-set victory over Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych in their Quarter-Final clash on Tuesday night.
In a match which took four hours and 16 minutes to complete Nadal made his way into the penultimate match of the tournament after a 6-7 7-6 6-4 6-3 victory over Berdych out on Rod Laver Arena.
The contest, played in front of an electronic atmosphere on centre court produced some of the best tennis seen thus far at the tournament as Nadal and Berdych fought tooth and nail before the Spaniard eventually came out on top.
“It’s true is difficult against a player like him, because you don’t have chances on return,” an exhausted Nadal said at his post match media conference. “He hit the ball very, very hard and very flat. Very difficult to find the rhythm.”
Berdych off his much talked about fourth round victory against another Spaniard in Nicolas Almagro controlled the majority of the first set but failed to take his opportunities against the man known as the ‘bull’ as the opening set headed to a tiebreak.
Nadal took a 5-3 lead in the tiebreak but Berdych behind his massive serve and powerful ground strokes fought back to take the first set.
The former champion down here in Melbourne immediately put Berdych on the back-foot in the second set and at one stage lead the set 5-2 before the Czech reversed the momentum and once again the set headed for a tiebreak.
It was Berdych’s fifth straight tiebreak in the tournament (he played three straight against Almagro) but unlike the previous four where he had won them he just didn’t do enough as Nadal levelled up the match.
From there Nadal gradually took over the match and although he was forced to fight he did just enough to move through to his first semi-final appearance at the year’s first grand slam since taking all before him three years ago.
On that occasion he defeated old foe Roger Federer to win his one and only Australian Open and the two will meet again in what will be a highly anticipated semi-final clash to be played on Thursday night.
“We played a lot of matches between each other and all ones, in very important moments for our careers and very high moments,” exclaimed Nadal of his rivalry with Federer. “So the match is special. I don’t know how many we played, but the most were finals or a few semifinals in a Masters Cup. But for everything, for what represents the match, all the matches against him are special.”
Tagged with: Australian Open, Clash, Foe, Grand Slam, Ground Strokes, Marathon, Melbourne, Momentum, Nicolas Almagro, Open Men, Rafael Nadal, Rhythm, Rod Laver, Rod Laver Arena, Roger Federer, Semi Finals, Spaniard, Tomas Berdych, Tooth And Nail, Tuesday Night