ALMOST

Fernando Verdasco was kicking himself after narrowly missing his chance to beat fellow Spaniard Rafa Nadal in an epic five-set semi-final at the Australian Open in the early hours of Saturday.

After around five hours of slugging it out with the world number one, Verdasco had a sniff of upsetting Nadal, who was down 15-30 while serving at 4-4 in the deciding set on Rod Laver Arena.

The ultra aggressive Verdasco, who used his booming forehand to help peel off an eye-watering 95 winners, lined up another to take two break points with the possibility of serving for the match.

Instead, his forehand found the net, Nadal held serve then broke Verdasco to win the longest match ever at the Australian Open and set up a final against Roger Federer on Sunday.

Nadal now has a career 7-0 record against Verdasco.

The energy-sapping five hour 14 minute match beat the previous record held by Boris Becker and Omar Camporese since 1991 by three minutes.