Rafa Nadal survives epic to set up dream Federer final

Federer admitted he thought the time may have passed for another Australian Open final against his old foe Rafael Nadal. The highly anticipated final on Sunday will be a repeat of the 2009 Australian Open final (which Nadal won in five sets).

Nadal, 20, successfully defended his French Open title and established his reputation as the world’s best player on clay.

Federer, who last won a grand slam in 2012, said: “I’m probably his number one fan”. The dramatic decline of the Swiss Maestro continued even in the next game, when Stan forced for the second consecutive time the service to his rival, going on the score of 5-1, before closing the set with the final score of 6-1, after a set of only 26 minuts of play.

“It’s never easy to lose a match like that”, Dimitrov told reporters, adding Nadal “deserves pretty much all the credit right now since he’s such a fighter”. Nadal won the first two sets, before Federer came roaring back to take the next two on a tiebreak.

This time Dimitrov moved 5-2 clear and then a cool backhand volley gave him three set points. As the clock ticked past midnight and the match approached its fifth hour, Nadal drew on all his experience to prise a break in the ninth game and a chance to serve for the match.

Rafael Nadal (left) and Roger Federer. Feeling that additional leg support, or maybe just the freedom you feel when two sets down, Wawrinka started hitting a little looser, placing the ball a little deeper, entrapping Federer in some of the grueling baseline rallies he might’ve hoped to avoid. However, Nadal pulled four points in a row to get a break point, and while that was saved by an ace, and another one after that with a second ace, Nadal kept pushing, forcing unforced errors off Federer’s racquet. He wrapped it up in four sets – 7-5, 7-6, 5-7, 6-1.

Nadal was underthreat early but was the first to break, an approaching Dimitrov unable to return a forehand down the line to fall 3-1 behind.

But Dimitrov made sure that they would go to a fifth and deciding set by taking the fourth 7-6.

It was a close contest until Federer claimed a decisive break in the sixth game of the fifth set to equal Borg’s record of five consecutive Wimbledon titles. But Federer fought right back and had a break point opportunity of his own.

Nadal fought off the first break point attempt but on his second try, Federer hit a shot across the court just on the line, a lovely shot that put the set back on serve.

After Federer had a run of 11 straight points on his serve, the Spaniard broke him in the second game of the second set, relying on his more traditional tactics of depth and spin.

“It’s one of the most historic matches in our sport”. Federer served up an ace to make it 30-15, an ace of 122 miles per hour at that.

An indoor title in Switzerland is hardly what Federer or Nadal will be remembered for, but it is the most recent meeting between the pair. They called a serve out but a challenge revealed it was in, so Federer kept ahead. I’m confident enough to say that I feel good physically, and overall like on the court.