Rafael Nadal prevailed upon Roger Federer in the first semi-final of the Australian Open 2012 in a tough four-setter.
Nadal won 6-7, 6-2, 7-6, 6-4 to enter his second Australian Open final. Last time he had played in the final here at Melbourne, he had gone on to win the tournament in 2009.
Federer began well in the match, breaking Nadal in the very second game of the opening set to go 2-0 up. Nadal broke back in the seventh game before taking the set into the tie-breaker, where the two players exchanged mini-breaks of serve. The Swiss former number one went on to win it 7-5 in the tie-breaker.
Nadal was broken in the very first game of the second set but he evened things up in the second game. Then Federer lost his serve at 2-3 and was broken again at 2-5 to lose the second set.
With the score at one set apiece, Federer ran into the danger of losing his very first service game but staved off three break-points to make it 1-1. The two went on serve till 3-3 before they traded serve breaks in the seventh and the eighth game of the set. It went into the tie-breaker where Nadal had four set points at 6-2. He won it 7-5.
The fourth set looked like it was going according script and Nadal saved a break point to make it 4-4. The Spaniard broke Federer at a crucial juncture in the ninth game before needing two match-points to close the match in his next game.
Nadal will now take on the winner of the Djokovic-Murray game.
