Australian Open Betting / Sean Calvert / 30 January 2009 / Leave a comment

"Tennis marathon", "five-set thriller", "modern-day classic": Nadal and Verdasco's semi-final earlier today was all those things and more. Sean Calvert talks us through it all.

The hottest run of temperatures in Melbourne history had thankfully abated by the time Rafa Nadal and Fernando Verdasco stepped on to the court at the Rod Laver Arena for the all-Spanish semi final.

Would the 'new' post-Davis Cup Verdasco continue to impress or would he revert to type in his first Grand Slam semi final and wilt under the pressure?

As for Nadal, would we see the kind of form that saw him brush aside Tommy Haas and Fernando Gonzalez, or would it be the one that was stuffed at this stage last year by Jo Wilfried Tsonga or the one that was patchy against Gilles Simon?

The 6-0 head-to-head record in favour of Nadal suggested a psychological advantage to the [1.17] favourite over the [6.6] underdog, but how would he deal with being on the cusp of his first hard court slam final?

Simon Reed's early revelation on Eurosport that he had seen Verdasco taking the phone number of another female player, following his P45 from Ana Ivanovic, hopefully assured Verdasco backers of his confident mental state and indeed he began well.

As early as game three, Frew McMillan made a very brave call that Nadal might be in for a difficult night and in the very next game Verdasco should have broken, but missed a smash on break point and his chance was gone.

He was performing well though and when he held a 30-0 lead on the Nadal serve at 5-4, Nadal's price had drifted to [1.46].

Again, Verdasco couldn't quite finish it off and when he misjudged a call on his own baseline to go 15-30 down in the very next game it looked grim for the number 14 seed.

He managed to stave off a couple of break points in that game to take a 6-5 lead, which had both Reed and McMillan cooing over Verdasco's new found resilience.

Nadal held to take the first set into a tie break and you felt that Verdasco had to win it to have a chance of taking the scalp of Nadal, who was trading at around [1.32] at this point and [2.52] for the outright title.

The world number one gained the first mini-break through an unforced error from his opponent, but Verdasco got it back immediately with a well-worked point.

Both players were boasting great numbers on serve and it took an outrageous net cord that dribbled over and landed plum on the line from Verdasco to bring up set point.

The backhand was going wide, but somehow the net cord brought it back in and Verdasco wasn't going to let the chance go to waste.

He reached a Nadal drop shot and returned it with interest to take the opener 7-6 and suddenly Nadal was [1.55], while the man from Madrid was a [2.82] shot.

McMillan decided to leave whilst on top after that early Verdasco call and was replaced in the box by Mats Wilander, whilst Reed was perhaps regretting his earlier labelling of Verdasco as 'a bit of a dilettante'.

Meanwhile, Nadal's struggle was playing into the hands of Roger Federer as far as the layers were concerned, as his price came in to [1.67] for the title.

Verdasco continued to look the more likely in the second set and Wilander was incensed that Nadal was virtually standing next to the ball boys to receive serve, but a few moments of brilliance in game eight of the second set brought up four break points for the world number one.

Verdasco held them off though to level at 4-4, but Nadal wasn't likely to be discouraged and he took the next two games to level at one set apiece.

Nadal was back in to [1.2] after holding in the opening game of set three, as Verdasco looked to be tiring a touch, highlighted by another misjudged hawkeye challenge on his own baseline, which led to the loss of his serve.

Was Verdasco toast? Well, not really. He broke straight back, before losing serve again, then breaking back again and it was 3-4 on serve with Nadal a [1.27] shot, having been sizeably matched at [1.11].

This was a compelling match to watch and seasoned Verdasco watchers, myself included, were seeing a much more resilient player here than the one who used to crumble at the slightest pressure.

His forehand was always big, but not this big and Verdasco had hit over 60 winners - most from that wing - by the time we reached 4-4 in the third.

There were no further losses of serve, so we went to another breaker and as before, Nadal took the early lead, but crucially he held onto it this time to take it 7-2.

Surely Verdasco was cooked now, especially given the fact that he seemed to be suffering physically and had the trainer on court to treat him?

Not a bit of it. He refused to lie down and should have broken Nadal at 4-3, but Nadal won a point that Wilander described as the best he'd ever seen and that point alone would have killed off lesser men.

The standard was worthy of any final and Verdasco led at 5-4 thanks to an audacious spinning drop shot that was quite brilliant in its execution.

It went to another breaker in the end and Verdasco played 'can't miss tennis' throughout for a 7-1 success and we were into a fifth.

The crowd were loving this, as Verdasco was swinging from the hip and finding the target past a bemused Nadal, who went out to [1.5] for the match.

The Madrid man was closing in on 100 winners by 3-4 in the fifth and there had been over £23 million matched on the contest on Betfair by time Verdasco held for 4-4 after fending off break points.

And when Nadal was 0-30 in the next it looked like there might be a shock, as the Majorcan eased to [2.0], but typically he fought back and tragically for Verdasco, he was beaten in the very next game on a double fault.

After 5 hours and 14 minutes, one of the best matches of all time for my money at the Australian Open was over and Nadal had escaped by the narrowest of margins. In fact he won just a single point more than Verdasco in the match.

He goes on to face Federer yet again, but for the first time in a hard court slam final and that clash will have to go some to beat this.