Nadal brushes aside Nieminen, enters semis

Melbourne: Second seed Rafael Nadal wore down Finn Jarkko Nieminen 7-5, 6-3, 6-1 on Tuesday to reach the semi-finals of the Australian Open for the first time.

The three-times French Open champion saved two set points before winning the first set and then gradually turned the screw to see off 24th seed Nieminen in two hours, 19 minutes.

"It's the third match that I have had set points against me in the first set so I'm very happy about (coming through) that," Nadal said in a courtside interview.

"He had his chance at 15-40 and he missed the return, but he played very aggressive and had a great tournament."

Spaniard Nadal took his time to get into his stride and Nieminen, who was appearing in his third grand slam quarter-final, forced him into some uncharacteristic errors early on.

Nieminen forced one break point in the eighth game and then two set points in the 10th game but Nadal dug deep to snatch the set.

The Spaniard forged a 4-1 lead in the second set and though Nieminen got one of the breaks back, Nadal eased to a two-sets-to love lead before cruising through the third.

Difficult thing

Nadal will next play Russian 14th seed Mikhail Youzhny or unseeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

The Spaniard has lost four of his 10 meetings with Youzhny but said he had no preference whether he played the Russian or Frenchman Tsonga.

"I prefer to play good, that's the difficult thing," he said.

"The others are going to be difficult, whoever wins, so it is going to be a tough semi-final."

Nieminen was disappointed not to have clinched one of his two set points in the opening set.

"That was a pity because at that moment, I felt I was controlling the game, I think I was playing better (than Nadal) in the first set," he said.

"Against anyone it is hard to come back, but against him, you have to hit so many balls, so it would have been very important to have won the first set."

The Finn reached a career-high ranking of 13 in 2006 but said he was now performing at an even better level.

"I think I'm playing my best tennis, better than ever, so to start like this promises well for the rest of the year."