"I think he's doing a fantastic tournament. If he keep playing like this, he going to have a good chances," Nadal told reporters.

Nadal's most recent loss in the quarterfinals of a major was at last year's Australian Open, when he retired from his game against Andy Murray due to a right knee injury.

This is Ferrer' s first time to reach semi-finals in Australian Open. He will next meet Fifth seed Andy Murray on Friday.

Meanwhile, fifth seed Andy Murray battled pass unseeded Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov, and reached the semifinals of Australian Open for the second consecutive year.

British Murray, who is still chasing his first major title, won 7-5, 6-3, 6-7 (3-7), 6-3 in three hours and six minutes to set up a semi-final date with Ferrer.

Although ranking as world No. 46, Dolgopolov did not play bad and has gave Murray pressure throughout the match. The Ukrainian had knocked out world No.4 Robin Soderling in the previous round, and on Wednesday became the first player this year to keep Murray on court for more than two hours.

"It was very tough, every point was different, he hits, just different," Murray told reporters in Melbourne after the match.

"He came back at me well in the third set, but I did well in the end. I had to go for my shots a little bit more, I was a little bit tentative in the tiebreak, so went for my shots a bit more and that settled me down. It was a tough match, and a good one to get through."

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