Top 5 wins of Rafael Nadal's career

#5. 2009 Australian Open semi-final against Fernando Verdasco

Nadal and Verdasco played an epic semi-final at the 2009 Australian Open

Nadal was aiming to win his maiden Australian Open title in 2009 and was cruising through the initial phases of the tournament – where he did not drop a single set till the quarter-finals. In the semi-finals, Nadal was up against compatriot Fernando Verdasco, who would be playing his first Grand Slam semi-final after defeating two Top 5 players in his previous two matches in 4^th seed Andy Murray and 2008 runner-up and 5^th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.Both players began brilliantly with the first set going to a tiebreaker and surprisingly, Verdasco won it to take the lead in the match. However, Nadal rebounded well in the second set to win it 6-4. The third set was another nail-biting one and it was Nadal who put himself in the driver’s seat by edging out Verdasco in a tiebreak. However, the 14^th seeded Spaniard was in no mood to throw in the towel and he staged a remarkable comeback by winning the fourth set in another tie-break to set up a fifth set to decide the fate of the match.Both players fought hard in the final set but it was Nadal’s sheer brilliance that outshone Verdasco’s resilience. Nadal was in his first ever Australian Open final after beating Verdasco in a match which lasted 5 hours and 14 minutes, thus becoming the longest match in Australian Open history at the time, bettering the 5 hour,11 minute landmark set in the third round of the 1991 Australian Open between Boris Becker and Italy’s Omar Camporese.