Gutsy Wawrinka wins hard-fought marathon

Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka reached his first Grand Slam final after edging out Tomas Berdych in a four-set marathon at the Australian Open on Thursday night.

The eighth seed beat the Czech 6-3, 6-7 (1), 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4) in three hours, 31 minutes and will meet the winner of Friday's match between fellow Swiss Roger Federer and Spain's Rafael Nadal in Sunday's final.

Whoever he plays, Wawrinka will be the underdog. He has never beaten Nadal in 12 meetings and has lost all but one of 14 matches against Federer.

But by beating Berdych, Wawrinka, who upset three-time defending champion Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals, supplants Federer as the No 1 Swiss. Federer had held the top Swiss ranking since 2001.

"I'm speechless ... it's amazing. I am so happy to win this match to make my first Grand Slam final here," Wawrinka said.

"I am working every day to try to win matches. I didn't expect to make a final in a Grand Slam and tonight it has happened, so tonight I'm really happy."

Wawrinka didn't lose serve and only had one break point against him as the big-serving Berdych dished up seven double faults - four of them in the crucial third and fourth set tiebreakers.

Berdych's serve was only broken once and Wawrinka shaded the Czech by just one point (143-142) throughout the whole match.

It will be Wawrinka's first major final. He lost to Djokovic in five sets in the semifinals at last year's US Open.

Wawrinka reaches a major final at his 36th Grand Slam appearance, and becomes only the second Swiss man behind Federer to play in a Slam final.

It was Wawrinka's fourth straight victory over Berdych.

Wawrinka won the opening set when Berdych missed an overhead smash on break point in the seventh game, but the Czech evened the match by taking the second-set tiebreaker.

Both players were unable to break serve and the semifinal was decided with Wawrinka winning the final two tiebreakers to edge home.

Wawrinka hit 18 aces among his haul of 57 winners and won 82 percent of his first-serve points, the same as Berdych.