<p>Swiss No.8 seed Stanislas Wawrinka reached his first Grand Slam final at the Melbourne Park Thursday after beating Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-7(1-7), 7-6(7-3), 7-6(7-4) in the semifinals of the Australian Open.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Wawrinka will meet either 17-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer or 13-time major winner Rafael Nadal, whose semifinal will be played Friday.<br /><br />Wawrinka broke Berdych in the eighth game of the first set and then served out the opener in 31 minutes, hitting 12 winners, twice as many as Berdych.<br /><br />The break soon proved the only one in the match. Berdych saved the only break point of the set in the seventh game to force a tiebreak. The Czech improved his winner count to 20 and closed out the set in 56 minutes by winning the tiebreak 7- 1.<br /><br />Neither player was able to make a breakthrough in the third set as Berdych wasted his first break point of the contest at 4-4. The third set went to another tiebreak in which Wawrinka benefited from another double fault from Berdych to clinch it.<br /><br />Berdych saved a break point in a 16-minute first game of the fourth set. Once again both players were inseparable on serve. In the third tiebreak of the match, another double fault from Berdych saw him go 1-4 down. Then an ace from Wawrinka put him in 5-2 lead.The Swiss wasted his first match point but didn't let the second slip through his fingers, winning the match with a long Berdych return.<br /></p>
<p>Swiss No.8 seed Stanislas Wawrinka reached his first Grand Slam final at the Melbourne Park Thursday after beating Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-7(1-7), 7-6(7-3), 7-6(7-4) in the semifinals of the Australian Open.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Wawrinka will meet either 17-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer or 13-time major winner Rafael Nadal, whose semifinal will be played Friday.<br /><br />Wawrinka broke Berdych in the eighth game of the first set and then served out the opener in 31 minutes, hitting 12 winners, twice as many as Berdych.<br /><br />The break soon proved the only one in the match. Berdych saved the only break point of the set in the seventh game to force a tiebreak. The Czech improved his winner count to 20 and closed out the set in 56 minutes by winning the tiebreak 7- 1.<br /><br />Neither player was able to make a breakthrough in the third set as Berdych wasted his first break point of the contest at 4-4. The third set went to another tiebreak in which Wawrinka benefited from another double fault from Berdych to clinch it.<br /><br />Berdych saved a break point in a 16-minute first game of the fourth set. Once again both players were inseparable on serve. In the third tiebreak of the match, another double fault from Berdych saw him go 1-4 down. Then an ace from Wawrinka put him in 5-2 lead.The Swiss wasted his first match point but didn't let the second slip through his fingers, winning the match with a long Berdych return.<br /></p>