Women’s, Men’s Championships This Weekend

Late tonight on ESPN at 3:30 a.m. ET (half past midnight, PT), in the 33^rd edition of the historic rivalry between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer will take to the court in a semifinal at ESPN’s 30^th Australian Open.  The match – also live on , WatchESPN and in Spanish on ESPN Deportes – will receive an encore presentation on ESPN2 on Friday, Jan. 24, at 2 p.m.  In addition, tonight at 11 p.m., ESPN3 will present live a Mixed Doubles Semifinal and the Women’s Doubles Championship on Rod Laver Arena. In the latter, top-seeded Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci of Italy are looking to defend their crown and claim a fourth Major championship against No. 3 Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina of Russia, who teamed to take the French Open women’s doubles title in 2013.

With 30 Major titles between them, Nadal leads the series between legends 22-10, but only 8-6 on hard courts, 2-0 in Melbourne.  The 32-year-old Federer is bidding to win his 18th Grand Slam championship, first since Wimbledon 2012 and fifth title down under.  Nadal, 27, won two Majors last year to bring his career total to 13, including eight in Paris and one in Australia (2009).

The Nadal-Federer winner will face the No. 8 seed, Stanilas Wawrinka of Switzerland, appearing in a Major final for the first time, late Saturday, Jan. 25, at 3 a.m. on ESPN.  Wawrinka de-throned three-time defending Australian champ Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinal round.

Late Friday, Jan. 24, at 3 a.m. on ESPN, the women’s final will crown a first-time champion in Australia as 31-year old Li Na of China, the No. 4 seed and the 2011 French Open winner, faces No. 20 Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, 24.  Although she has never before reached a Major final, to reach this final match she has upset No. 3 Maria Sharapova and No. 5 Agnieszka Radwanska .  Both the women’s and men’s finals will receive an encore presentation at 9 a.m. on ESPN2.

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