Men's Tennis: 5 longest Australian Open matches

# Rafael Nadal vs Fernando Verdasco – Semifinals, 2009

Rafael Nadal had won his first Grand Slam title outside of Paris at the Wimbledon Championships of 2008 and had overtaken his great rival, Roger Federer to top the ATP rankings in August 2008. He started the year 2009 as the World's Number 1 player.

After breezing through to the semi-finals without dropping a single set, Nadal was up against compatriot and 14th seed Fernando Verdasco in the semi-finals. Roger Federer had already booked his place in the final and the world was eagerly expecting a repeat of their 2008 Wimbledon final.

Verdasco was enjoying the best form of his career as he beat Andy Murray in the 4th round and took put 2008 runner-up Jo-Wilfired Tsonga in the semi-finals. The first set lasted for about 75 minutes and Verdasco took it in the tie-break winning 4 points in a row after Nadal had won the first mini-break at 4-3. Nadal levelled the match in the 2nd set with a decisive break of serve. The pair traded a pair of breaks each in the 3rd set before Nadal won the tiebreaker. With the clock ticking past midnight, the 4th set too went to a tiebreak and Verdasco by now was struggling with cramps and had to call the trainer. However, he held on to level the match at 2 sets a piece. In the deciding set, Verdasco saved 5 break points early on in the 5th set and also managed to save 1 match point. But a double fault on Nadal's second match point gave Nadal the win after 5 hours and 14 minutes. The final score read 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (1), 6-4.

Below is the highlights of this epic clash between the two Spaniards :