The wish for fairytale finals was completed on Friday when Nadal defeated Dimitrov to setup a final showdown against old rival Federer while Williams sisters will fight it out against each other for the Women’s Singles title
The match lasted nearly five hours and ended with a scoreline 6-3, 5-7,7-6(7-5),6-7(4-7),6-4. Both the players were full of energy and showed great athleticism and amazed the crowd with great tennis. The Bulgarian troubled the world no.9 with his powerful serves and forehands throughout the match. In the end though, it was Nadal who walked out victorious.
Nadal started the match by winning the first set 6-3 easily. Dimitrov responded by winning the second set 5-7. The next two sets were closely contested and both the sets were decided on tie-breakers. Nadal won the first set of the two while Dimitrov wrapped up the latter of the two.
Dimitrov lead the final set at 1-0, at 2-1, at 3-2 and then again at 4-3 but Nadal came back strongly everytime to equalise and eventually won by 6-4, game, set, match.
Statistically, Nadal hit 45 winners throughout the match as compared to Dimitrov’s 39. He also had less unforced errors, 43 against Dimitrov’s 69 during the course of the match.
Also read: Australian Open Quarter-final lineups ready, hopes for fairytale finals
Federer will be aiming for his 18th Grand Slam title while Nadal will be hoping for his 15th
The finals between Nadal-Federer will be the ninth final of a Grand Slam between them. The two titans have previously played against each other in eight Slam finals, with Nadal winning six of them. Their last such meeting was in the 2009 French Open final where Nadal won the game in four sets.
Meanwhile, in the Women’s Singles, the Williams sisters, Serene and Venus, will fight it out for the winners trophy on 28th January. The two sisters will face off against each other in the finals of a Grand Slam for the first time since Wimbledon 2008.
The American-Czech pair of Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova clinched the Women’s Doubles title. They beat the Czech-Chinese pair of Hlavackova-Peng by 6-7(4-7),6-3,6-3 in the final on Friday.
In the Men’s Doubles, the American pair of Bryan brothers will face off against the Australian-Finnish pair of Peers-Kontinen.
In the mixed doubles, Sania Mirza along with his Croatian partner Ivan Dodig will face American-Colombian pair of Spears-Cabal in the finals on 29th January.
