History’s longest Australian Open match ever was won by Rafael Nadal over Spain’s Fernando Verdasco. Rafeal Nadal beat Verdasco 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (1), 6-4 on Friday. Nadal will be encountering grand slam veteran Roger Federer when they meet on Sunday for the finals.

Preventing Federer from acing a 14th Grand Slam record is definitely a topnotch priority for Nadal.

The semi-finals between Nadal and Verdasco lasted for 5 hours and 14 minutes. This is a new jotted record, which broke the previous longest match, 5 hours and 11 minutes between Boris Becker and Omar Camporese of Italy in 1991.

Verdasco, who outclassed Andy Murray in the foruth round, gave a good fight. Though managing to settle for a good one, Verdasco left some unforced errors that in return gave Nadal an open hit for the victory.

Meanwhile, Williams sisters proved their totalreign in the Open by winning the women doubles Friday. THis is the sisters’ third title and eight Grand Slam as a combination. Venus and Serena Williams defeated Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia and Japan’s Ai Sugiyama 6-3, 6-3. Venus gave the team a hard fight since most of the tough offensives came from her.

“I just wouldn’t want to face them too much. They are ferocious,” Serena said of her sister’s shots.

“She’s covering the whole net. At one point today, I literally stood back and she took care of everything.”

Wimbledon veteran and champion Venus Williams was outclassed by Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro at the Australian Open on Thursday. The game ended with 2-6 6-3 7-5 in favor of Navarro.

World number 46 Suarez Navarro showed few nervousness signs in their second round clash. Venus was then in complete control of the early opening set whi beokw her rival in the first and fifth set. Suarez Navarro then proved Williams wrong when she swept into a 3-0 lead in the second set.

Venus appeared to recover with a 4-3 but then lost her own service which gave Navarro the chance to win the match.

The decider was controlled in its opening by Williams but she then failed to reverse the scenario. Williams ended up losing the final three games.

“When you go on court you have got to expect anything,” said Venus. “I’m not surprised at how well she played. I haven’t quite figured out the areas of my game that went wrong, but I have to credit her.”

Meanwhile, second-seeded sibling Serena Williams had a victory game over Argentine Gisela Dulko 6-3 7-5.