Stanislas Wawrinka squeezes into first Grand 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 Federer as the Swiss No. 1 unless the 17-time Grand Slam champion wins the title. Federer has held the top Swiss ranking since 2001.

“I’m speechless, it’s amazing. I am so happy to win that match to make my first final here,” Wawrinka said.

“I am working every day to try and win matches. I didn’t expect to make a final in a Grand Slam and tonight it’s happened, so tonight I’m really happy.”

Wawrinka didn’t lose serve and only had one break point against him as big-serving Berdych dished up seven double faults, four of them, crucially, in the third and fourth set tiebreakers.

Berdych’s serve was only broken once and Wawrinka shaded the Czech by just one point (143-142) throughout the whole match.

It will be Wawrinka’s first major final after he lost to Djokovic in five sets in the semi-finals at last year’s US Open.

Wawrinka reaches a major final at his 36th Grand Slam appearance, and becomes only the second Swiss man behind Federer to play in a slam final.

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 with Wawrinka winning the final two tiebreakers to edge home.

Wawrinka hit 18 aces among his haul of 57 winners and won 82 per cent of his first-serve points, the same as Berdych.

“It was a very good match,” former Wimbledon runner-up Berdych told reporters. “I played very well. I built the tactics and the game plan on my strength. It was working pretty good.

“There was just one thing that I missed and it was my service game in the first set. Other than that, I was able to play aggressive, not to do that many mistakes, attacking Stan.

“The game plan was working nearly perfect. But just the tiebreak is always a big lottery and he was the lucky one today.”