The third set, however, saw both Nadal and Verdasco struggle to hold on to their serve with the players trading breaks twice, meaning the set had to be decided by a tie-break again. Nadal made a strong start, leading 4-1 and going on to take the tie-break at 7-3.

Despite suffering an obvious leg problem, Verdasco was still in top form in the fourth set and forced another tie-break.

Verdasco, 14th seeded in the tournament and about to move into top ten on the ATP rankings after the Australian Open, even looked rejuvenated in the breaker and hit a bunch of scorching winners from the baseline and at the net, to take the breaker at 7-1.

Nadal's superior fitness, both mental and physical, was finally demonstrated in the 10th game of the fifth set as he earned three match points after a clearly tired Verdasco made some mistakes.

Caption Spain's Rafael Nadal (L) embraces compatriot Fernando Verdasco after Nadal won their men's singles semi-final match at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne Jan. 30, 2009.

An exhausted Verdasco fired another double faults on the third match point to give the epic victory to Nadal, who said at the courtside after the match that Verdasco also deserved the win.

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