Roger Federer likes his sleep but as Rafael Nadal and Grigor Dimitrov slugged it out last night in a gruelling semi-final here, he may well have allowed himself a late night.
But even as he enjoyed the two hitting each other almost into oblivion, by the time he finally turned in, he will have remembered that in Nadal, he will face a huge battle for glory in the final of the Australian Open.
It is the final everyone wanted, maybe even Federer, who described himself as Nadal’s No.1 fan after his win over Stan Wawrinka on Thursday.
Yesterday, Nadal joined him in the final – his first grand slam final since the French Open in 2014 – with a 6-3 5-7 7-6 6-7 6-4 win over a valiant, brilliant Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria.
Dimitrov, playing surely the best tennis of his career, had his chances when he led 4-3 in the final set and 15-40 on the Nadal serve but that was when the Spaniard relied on the muscle memory of all those great battles over the past decade.
Having held serve, he then broke Dimitrov in the next game and served out the match, falling to the ground in relief, ecstasy and exhaustion on his third match point.
“For me, it is amazing to be through to a final of a Grand Slam again here in Australia at the first month of the year,” Nadal said. “It means a lot to me.
“In the fifth set, the time came that I wanted to win. I think both of us deserve to be in that final. It was a great fight, finally it was me. I feel lucky. I am very happy for that.”
Having missed large chunks of 2016, when his wrist injury cost him a shot at the French Open title and caused him to miss Wimbledon, Nadal’s comeback has been nothing short of extraordinary.
Just as Federer never expected to be in the final after six months out with a knee injury, so Nadal thought it would take time for him to recover top form.
But his win over Dimitrov means he and Federer will meet for the 35th time in their history, the latest step in one of the greatest rivalries in the sport’s history.
Nadal leads their head to head battles 21-14 but will have one day less to recover, something he managed when he beat Federer to win the title in 2009, albeit when he was just 22, not 30.
When Federer flew to Manacor in October to help open Nadal’s new tennis academy, the pair laughed at their inability to play an exhibition, both still recovering from injury.
“That moment was amazing for our village, Manacor. I can't stop saying thanks because it was very emotional moment for everybody in Manacor, for everybody in the academy, for the kids, too.
“In that moment, for sure we never thought that we had the chance to be again in a final and especially in the first (slam) of the year.
“It happened. Both of us worked very hard to be where we are. It is great. It is great that, again, we are in a moment like this and we going to have a chance again to enjoy a moment like this.
“Just very happy for me and very happy for him because I think going to be a very nice moment.”
For all the dominance of Novak Djokovic in recent years and the efforts of Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka in winning three Grand Slams apiece, Nadal and Federer dominated the sport for the best part of a decade.
From the beginning of 2005 to the end of 2015, at least one of Federer and Nadal reached the final in 35 of the 44 Grand Slam events.
Their contrasting styles made for drama and intensity, for fans and players alike.
“There are different ways to play tennis,” Nadal said. “Both of us, I think, had a lot of good success with these two different styles.
“I feel that this rivalry goes not only in the tennis world. People from outside of our world talk about this, and that's good for our sport. It is good that we are back there.”
Nadal will have more than 24 hours less than Federer to recover for the final, but Carlos Moya, who joined Nadal’s coaching team at the end of 2016, said he had the strength to be ready for tomorrow.
“It was a very demanding match, physically and mentally, but in the past Rafa has been able to recover well from these matches,” Moya said. “So he’s going to be OK, I think.”
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