The world tennis number two Rafael Nadal will play his great rival Roger Federer in the Australian Open semi-finals after a comeback victory over the seventh seed Tomas Berdych late last night in Melbourne.
While Federer needed less than two hours to outclass Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro in straight sets, the Spaniard was taken to four sets by the big-serving Czech Berdych in a match lasting four hours 16 minutes. The opening set alone took 75 minutes.
On another sweltering day at Melbourne Park, the defending womens champion Kim Clijsters ended Caroline Wozniacki's hopes of a first grand slam, beating the Danish world number one 6-3 7-6 to set up a semi-final against Victoria Azarenka from Belarus.
In the remaining womens quarter-finals today the unseeded Italian Sara Errani plays the second seeded Czech Petra Kvitova, and Maria Sharapova plays fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova.
The last mens quarter-finals are between Andy Murray and the Japanese Kei Nishikori, and Novak Djokovic and Spain's David Ferrer.
