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Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer made tennis fans all over the world cancel their Sunday appointments by securing contrasting wins in the semi-finals of the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open on Saturday.

(Please click here if you are looking for our report on the final)

Nadal made the finals the hard way surviving three match points against Novak Djokovic in arguably one of the greatest matches the two will ever play, squeezing through 3-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (9) in a pulsating four hour battle royale.

Any match to follow would have always struggled to live up to expectations, and with Roger Federer bringing his A-game tonight, young Argentine Juan Martin del Potro was easily dispatched 6-3, 6-4 in quite a forgettable encounter.

Seemingly oblivious to the enormity of the task facing him, Novak Djokovic beaten twice by Nadal in finals already this year, came out of the blocks like a man possessed. Djokovic broke Nadal in the Spaniard's opening service game, and seemingly drawing inspiration from a partisan home crowd (which were completely against him) Djokovic not only consolidated the break, but did not concede a single break point on his serve in a 51 minute long first set.

The second set saw Djokovic maintain momentum on his own serve, and create four opportunities to take a decisive break. He however fluffed chances in the 3rd, 9th and 11th games. Nadal finally made an impression on the Djokovic serve, creating a break point of his own in the 12th game of the set and Djokovic's 11th service game of all in the contest so far. It was incidentally also a set point, and would have reeked of the proverbial smash and grab had Nadal taken his opportunity.

He didn't and we headed into what was to be the first of two tiebreaks on the night. Nadal won the breaker 7-5 after a marathon 97 minutes. Each player had won 47 points in an exceptional slugfest, but Nadal had won the more important ones at the end of the day.

An unfazed Djokovic broke Nadal's serve to open up a 3-1 lead in the decider, however the World no. 1, unbeaten on clay in 32 matches coming into tonight, broke straight back to keep himself in the contest. Normalcy resumed and both players held serve to push the final set into another tie-break.

Djokovic had never won a tiebreak against Nadal, and sometimes the stats show just why. Going into the final set, Nadal had raised his first serve percentage from 69% in the opening set to 85%, truly the hallmark of a champion at the peak of his powers.

But Djokovic played out of his skin to setup his first match point when he hit a forehand winner for a 6-5 lead, but Nadal responded with a forehand winner of his own to move to 6-6. A second match point at 7-6 was saved by Nadal with another forehand winner, and the 'King of Clay' created a match point of his own at 8-7.

Djokovic saved it, and created his third and final opportunity of the night at 9-8. Nadal once again came out trumps, and then won three points in a row to end what had been an amazing effort from the Serbian challenger.

Honestly Djokovic couldn't have played any better, and one hopes that the 21-year old destined for success will have that one more point in him the next time these two behemoths grace the courts.

A significantly more relaxed Federer will be hoping for some payback tomorrow when he squares-off with Nadal for the 20th time in their careers. Nadal with an overwhelming 13-6 edge, and almost a total domination on clay will need to recharge his batteries very quickly if he is to be at his best tomorrow and based on our glimpse of Federer's form this week, nothing else would suffice.

Speaking ahead of the final, Federer said: "My game is pretty good. I've had some pretty difficult opponents (in Madrid), played many hard court players in a way - like Blake and Roddick - so I've had to adjust my game a bit with that and playing at night, then day then night again.

"I'm happy with the way I'm hitting the ball and my serve is getting better as (the) week has gone on."

"The big test is Rafa," he said. "It's exciting, I love playing the guy.

"I'm playing against the best guy in the final but I'll be right there to give it my best shot and I definitely will."

Speaking after beating Djokovic, Nadal said, "First of all I am very happy to be in the final, I'm not too worried who else is going to be there, I just want to be there and I'm there. Whoever is playing best on the other side of the draw is going to be there. The tough thing for me to do it going to be recovering from the tough match of today, that won't be easy."

He also made a special mention of all the fans who turned up to support him, "I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'll always say it. The public here is very special, they are very much on the side of the Spaniards and we all appreciate that. It's important to hear the ambience of the people and the encouragement they give you to overcome 'the most difficult moments is essential. It is because of them I'm in the final, for sure."

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