Ferrer survives in ‘miracle’ fightback

Men’s singlesFerrer def Almagro 4-6, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6, 6-2Women’s singlesSharapova def Makarova 6-2, 6-2Li def Radwanska 7-5, 6-3MELBOURNE – David Ferrer stared defeat full in the face three times but staged an epic comeback from two sets down to beat fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro and reach the semi-finals of the Australian Open on Tuesday.The fourth seed looked to be heading for the exit when, having been dominated by some brilliant play from the 10th seed for the first two sets, he faced Almagro serving for the match at 5-4 in the third.It is not for nothing that Ferrer is known as one of the best fighters in tennis, however, and he hustled along the baseline to claw his way back into the contest and take the third set on Rod Laver Arena.Twice more Almagro had chances to serve out for victory but he blew them both and Ferrer, who had won all 12 of their previous meetings, emerged a 4-6 4-6 7-5 7-6 6-2 winner after three hours and 44 minutes on Rod Laver Arena.“It was a miracle I won this match,” said Ferrer, who will face Novak Djokovic or Tomas Berdych in the last four.“I tried to fight and do my best (but) next round... I need to play my best tennis, better than today. Now I will need to rest but I have a day and a half.”Ferrer, 30, has lost all four of his previous grand slam semi-finals, including defeats to world number one Djokovic at the U.S. Open in 2007 and last year.Service breaksChina’s Li Na earlier showed she had the legs to go the distance when she reached her third semi-final in four years at the Australian Open with a 7-5 6-3 victory over fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska.There were 10 service breaks in the 21 games and Li grabbed six of them to set up a contest against second seed Maria Sharapova, who blew away her Russian compatriot Ekaterina Makarova 6-2 6-2 in the late afternoon match.

Sports

Ferrer survives in ‘miracle’ fightback