Wawrinka squeezes into first Slam final

MELBOURNE: Switzerland´s Stanislas Wawrinka reached his first Grand Slam final after edging out Tomas Berdych in four tight sets at the Australian Open on Thursday.

The eighth seed beat the Czech 6-3, 6-7 (1/7), 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/4) in three hours 31 minutes and will play either Rafael Nadal or fellow Swiss Roger Federer in Sunday´s final.

Wawrinka, who upset three-time defending champion Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals, will supplant his close friend Federer as the Swiss number one unless the 17-time Grand Slam champion wins the title.

Federer has held the top Swiss ranking since 2001.

Wawrinka didn´t lose serve and only had one break point against him as big-serving Berdych dished up seven double-faults with three of them, crucially, in the third and fourth set tiebreakers.

It was Wawrinka´s fourth straight victory over Berdych and his second win over the Czech in three Slams.

Wawrinka won the opening set when Berdych missed an overhead smash on break point in the seventh game, but the Czech levelled the match by taking the second-set tiebreaker.

Both players were unable to break serve and the semi-final was decided by Wawrinka winning the final two tiebreakers to edge home.

Wawrinka hit 18 aces among his haul of 57 winners and won 82 percent of his first-serve points, the same as Berdych. (AFP)