Rafael Nadal Beats Roger Federer In Straight Sets To Advance To Australian Open Final

Rafael Nadal beat Roger Federer in straight sets 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-3 at the Australian Open to advance to Sunday’s final.

The match was controlled by Nadal and he hit winner, after winner to the delight of the thousands of spectators to reach his third final at the Grand Slam.

The first set between Rafael Nadal and Federer was the tighter one of the whole match and ended in a tie-breaker that went to the Spaniard.

Nadal has the edge against Federer — with a 7-0 record — when winning the first set.

The second set was more in style of what fans are used to seeing from the two players, with Federer hitting bigger shots in a desperate attempt to stop Rafa. However, the attempts were in vain and the first break of the match took place, giving the edge to Nadal.

After that, Federer was out of luck and Rafael Nadal proved why he has the incredible record of 137-0 when winning the first two sets. That’s right, he has not lost any of those matches.

Nadal — the world No. 1 player — broke Federer again and from then on the legendary Swiss Champion didn’t have a chance.

Rafael Nadal: Australian Open 2014 Finalist! Congratulations to my Rafan friends! pic.twitter.com/zr6XtjREFU

— Mark (@TennisFanMark) January 24, 2014

Nadal now advances to his third Australian Open final to play Stanislas Wawrinka, the man that upset Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals and edged Tomas Berdych in the semis.

Rafael Nadal won the Australian Open in 2009, beating Roger Federer in the final. If he wins against Stanislas Wawrinka on Sunday night, he would become only the third man in history to win every Grand Slam singles title at least twice. Rod Laver and Roy Emerson were the other two.

Once again, Federer could not figure out the aggressive Nadal, who has been unstoppable, and expressed his frustration in a post-game interview.

“Probably the lack of chances I was able to create on the return. ‘Cause I hung around, you know, the first couple of sets. So I guess that was frustrating, you know, because I thought I was going to get into more of his service games.”

“If you get the lead at least in the first or second set, at one point maybe I can also play a bit more freely, you know, do a bit more what I was hoping to do, play a bit more aggressive.”

If Rafael Nadal can win on Sunday, he will get close to Federer’s Grand Slam victory record of 17. Nadal will have 14, if he prevails and could have 15 by the time Wimbledon rolls along.