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.”