Rafael Nadal produced a great comeback win over main rival Roger Federer 6-7(5), 6-2, 7-6(5), 6-4 in 3 hours and 42 minutes of dramatic tennis that enthralled the spectators.

Rafael Nadal overcome Roger Federer ro reach in the final

Roger Federer had not lost a match on court since theUSopen loss to Djokovic had won 24 matches in 5 months and 1 withdrawal in semi final ofDoha.

Federer started off as a man late for a flight as he blitzed his way to a 3-0, 4-1 lead in the first set. Nadal waited for his chance and fought back to level at 4-4. It went to a tie break where Rafa went down a mini break at the start. Federer won the set when Nadal made a backhand error.

Federer seemed to be in the driver’s seat when he broke serve in the very first game in the second set. However Nadal decided to play more aggressive from that point and yielded immediate results as Nadal broke back and went into the lead at 4-2. There was a stoppage for the Australian Day fireworks when Rafa was up 5-2.

After the resumption, Nadal won 11 points in a row winning the second set and had Federer at 0-40 in the third set. Nadal relaxed a bit and immediately Federer bounced back to deuce before winning the game to be level 1-1. Federer broke serve to lead 4-3 and Nadal followed suit. Serving down 5-6, Federer faced a set point but recovered to a tie break where Nadal rushed to a 6-1 lead. Federer saved 4 pts in a row to put pressure on Nadal who hit a terrific inside out forehand that Federer could not retrieve.

In the fourth set, Nadal missed break point chances again before finally converting one at 4-4 with a magical passing shot on the dead run. While serving for the match, Nadal missed a match point and now faced break point for leveling the set at 5-5.  Nadal showed why he is rated as having the best defense when he ran down a seemingly impossible shot with a lunging defensive lob that landed on the line which a surprised Federer could only hit wide. Nadal won the match on second match point when Federer hit a forehand long.

There are number of statistics associated with Rafa-Roger meetings

-          27^th meeting between the two; Rafa  leads 18-9

-          8-2 Record for Nadal in grand slams matches including 6-2 in finals. Rafa and Roger equaled the record for most grand slam meetings with Lendl McEnroe who had a 7-3 win loss record

The women’s final on Saturday evening will see fourth seed Maria Sharapova taken on third seed Victoria Azarenka.  The winner of the title has an added incentive- The No.1 Ranking. Sharapova has already been ranked No.1 in the past while Azarenka has not attained the ranking yet. In the semi final Azarenka beat defending champion Kim Clijsters 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.  In the first set, Azarenka broke early playing aggressive brand of tennis that had Clijsters scrambling on the baseline doing the “splits”.

Serving for the set at 5-4, Azarenka came up with an ace, a service winner and powerful ground strokes to take the set.  In the second set Clijsters cut down on her unforced errors and rushed to 4-0 lead and served out set at 6-1. The third set saw Azarenka break serve and go on to 2-0, 4-1 lead. Clijsters kept fighting but could not get the break back as Azarenka proved very consistent and reached her first slam final. Azarenka who has a perfect 11-0 record in 2012 played with a lot of confidence.

Sharapova beat Wimbledon champion and second seed Petra Kvitova 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 after rallying from a break down in the final set. The main difference between the two players was their performance on break points- Sharapova won 5/5 while Kvitova converted only 3 / 14 chances. Sharapova is aiming to win her second Australian Open title.