HAMBURG (Germany), May 18: Holder and top seed Roger Federer beat unseeded Italian Andreas Seppi 6-3, 6-1 in the Hamburg Masters on Saturday to set up a final with Spain’s Rafael Nadal for the second year in a row.Second seed Nadal won a magnificent three-hour semi-final battle with Novak Djokovic, beating the fast-rising Serb 7-5, 2-6, 6-2.

Djokovic has won the Australian Open and two Masters Series already this year and would have taken over Nadal’s number two world ranking if he had beaten the French Open champion.

With the retractable roof at the Rothenbaum closed to keep out the rain, there was an extra buzz around the centre court and Nadal and Djokovic wowed the crowd with some awesome rallies.

The fist-pumping Mallorcan, seemingly able to chase down almost anything Djokovic threw at him, saved 15 of 19 break points against him and broke serve in the first and seventh games of the deciding set.

He sealed victory on his fifth match point when Djokovic netted an attempted drop shot at the end of an incredible final game lasting more than 15 minutes.

In Saturday’s first semi-final, world number one Federer was only once under pressure on his serve against Seppi and closed out the win in 79 minutes.

The Swiss had played the 24-year-old Seppi once before, coming through a tight match at the Monte Carlo Masters last year in straight sets.

Federer played some fabulous shots on Saturday, with a drop-shot return and a whipped crosscourt forehand winner on the run the pick of the bunch.

The 26-year-old said he was very happy to be back in the Hamburg final with the French Open starting at the end of this month, the only grand slam he has failed to win.

The top-ranked Italian at number 43 in the world, Seppi came through a three-hour quarter-final against Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer on Friday and was playing in his first Masters Series semi.

Nadal, a three-times French Open winner, has spent a record 147 weeks ranked second behind Federer dating back to July 2005.

He had won all three of his previous matches against Djokovic on clay, beating the Serb in straight sets in the semi-finals at Roland Garros last year.

Results (semi-finals):

2-Rafael Nadal (Spain) bt 3-Novak Djokovic (Serbia) 7-5, 2-6, 6-2; 1-Roger Federer (Switzerland) bt Andreas Seppi (Italy) 6-3, 6-1.

CORNET ADVANCES

ROME: Title holder Jelena Jankovic will meet French qualifier Alize Cornet in the final of the Italian Open after the withdrawal of Russian second seed Maria Sharapova with a calf strain.

The 18-year-old Cornet staged a splendid comeback to upset Russian sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 and earn herself a meeting with Serb fourth seed Jankovic.

The first set of the semi-final was tight until the seventh game, when Cornet was punished with a break of serve after blasting some easy forehands into net.

The 18-year-old lost the five games that followed and looked out of the match at 3-0 down in the second set.

But Chakvetadze repeated the tendency she showed earlier in the tournament to relax in the middle of her matches and Cornet took advantage to roar back and level things.

The Frenchwoman carried the momentum in the deciding set to reach her first big final.

Results (semi-finals):

Alize Cornet (France) bt 6-Anna Chakvetadze (Russia) 3-6, 6-4, 6-3; 4-Jelena Jankovic (Serbia) bt 2-Maria Sharapova (Russia) walkover.—Agencies