MELBOURNE: Rafael Nadal continued his dominant streak over Roger Federer to reach the Australian Open final for the third time, beating the 17-time major winner 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-3 Friday to set up a championship decider against No. 8-seeded Stan Wawrinka.

Nadal now has won 23 of his 33 matches against Federer, including nine of 11 in the majors.

The 27-year-old Spaniard is one victory away from being the first man in the Open era to win all four majors at least twice, and from joining Pete Sampras in second place on the list of all-time Grand Slam winners with 14.

At the end of the night, Federer knew he wouldn´t even be the No. 1-ranked player in Switzerland next week.

Wawrinka will replace Federer as their country´s highest-ranked player. (AP)

SOURCE: AP