MELBOURNE, Australia -- 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 night to set up a championship decider against No. 8-seeded Stan Wawrinka. With his 23rd win in 33 matches against Federer, the 27-year-old Spaniard set up an ideal chance to win a 14th Grand Slam title and to become the first man to win all four majors at least twice in the Open era. Nadal missed the 2013 Australian Open during a seven-month layoff for illness and a knee injury, but returned to win the French and U.S. Opens among his 10 titles for the season and finished the year at No. 1. He won the Australian Open in 2009, beating Federer in the final, and lost in a five-set, 5-hour, 53-minute 2012 final to Novak Djokovic after ousting Federer in the semis. In other years, hes struggled with injuries -- its the only Grand Slam tournament he hasnt won at least twice. "Its really, really emotional for me to be back on this court, Rod Laver Arena, and to be able to play another final," Nadal said. "I think tonight I played the best match of the tournament. I go on court (against Federer) knowing that is a really tough match and if I am not playing my best, I will not have the chance to win." At the end of the night, Federer knew he wouldnt even be the No. 1-ranked player in Switzerland next week. By reaching his first major final, Wawrinka ensured hed replace Federer as their countrys highest-ranked player for the first time. But the 32-year-old Federer is confident of winning more majors, expecting some coaching from Stefan Edberg and continued improvement in his fitness to help after a slump in 2013, when he didnt reach any of the major finals for the first time in 11 years. "I still think my best tennis is only ahead of me now," said Federer, who reached the Australian Open semifinals for 11 consecutive years. Nadal is now second on the list of players reaching Grand Slam finals, joining Ivan Lendl on 19 -- Federer leads the list with 24. Another Grand Slam title would lift Nadal to equal second on the all-time list with Pete Sampras, who was in the crowd for the match. Nadal has struggled with a blister on the palm of his left hand in his last two matches, but he removed the heavy tape that affected his serve in his quarterfinal win over Grigor Dimitrov and replaced it with one square of adhesive tape. A TV camera got a close-up view of the blister when he took a medical timeout after the first game of the second set, drawing gasps and groans from the crowd. "Too much talk about the blister. The blister is OK," Nadal said in his on-court interview. "The problem ... is the position of the blister, its difficult." But, he said, he didnt feel any pain. He certainly didnt show it if he did. He resisted just about everything Federer threw at him, scrambling to keep balls in play that usually would be winners. Federer served and volleyed, he played with good touch, he played drop shots, he tried everything -- even complaining to the chair umpire about Nadals loud grunting after the tiebreaker -- but his 50 resulting unforced errors doubled the number by his rival. Left-handed Nadal hit 13 of his 28 winners on his powerful forehand, attacking Federers one-handed backhand yet again. "I tried a few things ... then again, Rafa does a good job of neutralizing you," Federer said. "So I guess at times I couldnt quite do what I wanted to do, but thats because of Rafa." The first break of the match came in the sixth game of the second set, giving Nadal a 4-2 lead. That only heightened the crowd support for Federer, who got a standing ovation when he broke Nadal back to make it 2-all in the third set, immediately after dropping serve in the previous game. It noise and chants died down again when Federer was broken again soon after and Nadal finished off the match. Wawrinka beat Tomas Berdych on Thursday night, getting an extra day off ahead of Sundays championship match. Li Na will be hoping for third time lucky in the womens final on Saturday against Dominika Cibulkova. She has reached the finals in three of the past four years, but is yet to win the Australian title. Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci rallied to win the last five games and successfully defended their Australian Open womens doubles title on Friday with a 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 victory over Russian pair Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina. . As deep as their roster is, they need their superstar. Rose scored 23 points in his return from a five-game absence due to back pain, and Chicago hung on to beat the struggling Atlanta Hawks 90-79 on Monday. . The defeat leaves the 41-year-old Nestor to concentrate on the mixed-doubles event after winning 12 straight matches and winning Australian titles in Brisbane and Sydney with two different partners. "This was a little bit of a let down, but all credit to them," said Nestor.
http://www.cheapvikingsjerseysonline.co ... sey-online. Quarterback Drew Willy appeared to injure his throwing hand on the third last play of practice Thursday. . Ramirez is still hitting behind Puig, only now they are in the third and fourth spots, and the change is starting to generate positive results for manager Don Mattingly. . Helwani said that Weidman has been dealing with recurring swelling and pain in his knees related to torn meniscus he suffered as a teenager and the problems came to a head last week when he suffered prolonged swelling and pain in his left knee, resulting in the decision to undergo an arthroscopic scope procedure to clean up the tear in both knees.EDMONTON -- The Vancouver Canucks may have brought in goalie Ryan Miller in the off-season, but Eddie Lack isnt ready to hand over the starting goalie reins just yet. Lack had 21 saves and Alexander Edler had a goal and an assist as the Canucks came away with a 2-1 road win over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night. Nick Bonino also scored for Vancouver, who improved to 4-2-0 in pre-season play. Teddy Purcells goal was the only one Lack has allowed in just over two full games worth of pre-season play, stopping 57 of 58 shots faced. However, the 26-year-old Swedish goalie was the first to admit that stats from before the regular season can be misleading. Its just the pre-season, so you cant read too much into it, said Lack. I think I let in five goals every game in the last pre-season. Im just trying to focus on what I can do here. Im just looking forward to the regular season now. Canucks coach Willie Desjardins said Thursdays game was more competitive than the ones that preceded it, offering a welcome test for his team with the regular season on the horizon. I thought there was bit more intensity out there, said Desjardins. I know we wanted to play with more intensity. I thought our battle level was a little higher, which was good to see. Purcell was the lone scorer for the Oilers, who dropped to 4-3-0 in exhibition action. It started off intense right off the bat, Purcell said. I learned pretty quick that this is a heated rivalry. Its good to show some emotion in pre-season, both teams are still trying to get the rust off and learn the systems and stuff, but it was good to see that emotion early. You can tell there is a strong dislike there. Edmonton took a 1-0 lead with 1:19 left in the first period. Jesse Joensuu followed up on a two-goal night against Arizona the night before by showing some solid hustle to fight off two defenders in a race to the puck along the boards. Joensuu fed it to Purcell, who scored his first goal as an Oiler since coming over in a trade with Tampa Bay this summer. Purcell beat Canucks goalie Eddie Lack with a backhand in tight. Lack was shaken up by a collision on the play, but was able to continue in net. I made a save and I kind of got stuck and he ran me over, Lack said. It wwas just black and all of a sudden the puck was in the net.dddddddddddd I think I was more scared than anything. I am fine now. Joensuu also looked strong in the pre-season last year when he had three goals and an assist in three games, but a back injury was at least partially to blame in a poor regular season where he had just five points in 42 games. To be honest, Im happy for every healthy day, that was my focus this summer, he said. I feel like Ive performed well and Ive enjoyed playing tones and playing more minutes than maybe what Ive played last season. Its been fun and Im happy. It was a feisty affair with several fights, punctuated by a brief stretch early in the second that saw Cal OReilly drag down Edmontons Nikita Nikitin, forcing him from the game with an ankle injury. Vancouvers Tim Sestito then took a run at Oilers goalie Viktor Fasth, earning the ire of rookie defenceman Darnell Nurse and later a fight with Kevin Westgarth. Vancouver tied the game 11 minutes into the second period with a short-handed goal as Edler made a long feed to Bonino and he beat Fasth with a quick shot. The Canucks went up 2-1 with five minutes left in the second while the teams were playing four men a side as Niklas Jensen fed a wide-open Edler in the slot and he blasted it into the Edmonton net. There was no scoring in a largely uneventful third period. The two teams will close out the pre-season with a rematch in Vancouver on Saturday night. Notes: Canucks forward Bo Horvat left the game in the first period with an upper body injury and did not return?? Vancouver and Edmonton met five times in the regular season last year, with the Canucks winning three of the five outings?? The Canucks iced a largely veteran lineup, however their top line remained at home as the Sedins and linemate Radim Vrbata did not play. Also unavailable due to injuries were Brad Richardson, Frank Corrado and Zach Kassian?? The Oilers re-assigned goalie Laurent Brossoit and defenceman David Musil to Oklahoma City earlier in the day, but still had 32 players in camp heading into Thursdays game?? Out with what are reported to be minor injuries for the Oilers at the moment are defencemen Andrew Ference and Jeff Petry and forward David Perron. ' ' '
