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Nadal beaten by inspired Gonzalez

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MELBOURNE, Australia -- Chile's Fernando Gonzalez demolished second seed Rafael Nadal in straight sets to earn a semifinal clash with Germany's Tommy Haas at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Wednesday.

Gonzales, the 10th seed, played immaculate tennis to triumph 6-2 6-4 6-3 in a fraction over two hours on the Rod Laver Arena, wrapping up the match on his second match point as Nadal put a forehand wide.

It was a stunning victory for Gonzalez, who had served notice of his potential by beating home favorite Lleyton Hewitt followed by a straight sets win over American James Blake in the last 16.

Nadal, who had survived a classic late night five-setter against Britain's Andy Murray at the same stage, was simply overwhelmed by Gonzalez who never looked back after taking the opening set on a double break of service.

A single break in the second set was enough to secure a two sets to love lead and Nadal's hopes of staging a comeback were snuffed out as Gonzalez broke in the fifth game of the third with a blistering forehand winner.

Serving to stay in the match at 3-5 down, Nadal saved the first matchpoint but tamely surrendered with two forehands wide of the line.

"I am playing great tennis, I can do more things on the court, that makes me very happy," Gonzalez said.

"I have been in the (grand slam) quarterfinals a few times and I've never won a match, but today I played really unbelievable tennis and I hope to continue this way."

It was Gonzalez's third win in four meetings with Nadal and made him only the second Chilean to reach the semifinals of a grand slam in the open era (post-1969) following Marcelo Rios's run to the final in Australia in 1998.

Nadal blamed a thigh injury he sustained in his victory over Murray for his lackluster display.

"I have problems in my leg, so I cannot run. I can't run a lot. It was difficult playing a match like this," said Nadal.

"When I am on court, I am trying to run. Well, I can't. I can't start. It was difficult and disappointing for me."

Sweet revenge

Earlier, Tommy Haas gained sweet revenge by edging out third seed Nikolay Davydenko 6-3 2-6 1-6 6-1 7-5.

Haas, the 12th seed, was knocked out by the obdurate Russian in the last eight of the 2006 U.S. Open, but he recovered from 3-1 down in the fifth set and saved one match point before prevailing in an epic duel on Rod Laver Arena.

Having saved match point at 4-5 in the fifth, Haas broke and then had his first match point thwarted by an overrule from Hawk-eye before sealing victory in three hours and 19 minutes when the Russian's forehand drifted wide.

"(It was) one of my best matches, being down a break in the fifth, I was trying to hang in there," the 28-year-old said in a courtside interview.

"Memories from the U.S. Open came back when I lost 6-4 in the fifth, it was hard to swallow. I don't know how I did it, I'm so happy."

In a match of dashing baseline hitting, single breaks were enough for the two to share the opening sets.

Davydenko, who fell at the last eight stage for a third consecutive year, took the initiative by romping to the third in 33 minutes, but Haas took just one minute more to win the fourth 6-1 and take the game to a tense decider.

The Russian surged to a 3-1 lead when Haas netted a simple forehand but the German, a former world number two before fractures to both ankles sent him plummeting down the rankings, hit back.

He broke back immediately and the pair held until a nerve-racking ninth game when Haas served two double faults to hand Davydenko his match point.

But the Russian netted a backhand to miss his chance and Haas held only to then break Davydenko for a 6-5 lead courtesy of a crunching forehand winner.

Haas appeared to have won the match when a Davydenko forehand was called long but the Hawk-eye replay showed it had clipped the line by the narrowest margin. The German though made no mistake on the next point.

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