Rafael Nadal has continued his Grand Slam dominance of Roger Federer by defeating the 16-time major winner in four tight sets in the semi-finals of the Australian Open on Thursday night.
Nadal dropped the first set in a tie break, but fought back to register the 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 victory in three hours and 42 minutes and set-up a mouth-watering final on Sunday against either world No.1 Novak Djokovic or fourth seed Andy Murray.
The victory was Nadal's 18th overall against Federer from 27 matches, with the Spaniard also holding an impressive 8-2 head-to-head record over his arch rival in Grand Slam encounters.
Federer may have hit more winners than his opponent (46-36), but it was an uncharacteristic high unforced error count (63-34) - with the majority of those coming on the forehand side - that let the Swiss maestro down.
But Federer had little chance in reality as Nadal ran down balls that no other player would dream of running down and looked to be back to his scintillating best.
It was Federer who made the better start as he shot out to a 3-0 lead in the opening set, before Nadal broke back in the seventh game with a lovely running backhand passing shot to make it 3-4.
Federer's first serve was on song and he used that to his advantage in the tie break to take the opening set in 56 minutes.
The pair exchanged breaks to love in the opening two games of the second, but two further breaks of serve late in the set - either side of the now traditional break for the annual Australia Day fireworks - allowed the Spaniard to level it up heading into the third.
Federer saved three break points in his opening service game of the third set and then made the vital break in the seventh game to edge ahead 4-3, only for Nadal to counter in the following game to send the set to another tie break.
With Federer netting some easy shots on the forehand side it was Nadal that opened up a 6-1 lead in the tie break and although the No.3 seed from Switzerland saved four straight set points, the left-hander from Majorca closed it out at his fifth attempt to go up two-sets-to-one.
Federer did have a small chance of edging his way back into the contest in the eighth game of the fourth set when he held a break point on the Nadal serve, but he could not take the opportunity as he drove a gettable forehand wide with an open court beckoning.
Nadal held to make it 4-4 and then got the break in the ensuing game when Federer pushed a backhand wide.
From there all Nadal had to do was hold serve and he did so despite allowing Federer two break points to move through to his second final at Melbourne Park and send out an ominous warning to Djokovic and Murray.