MELBOURNE, Australia -- Rafael Nadal continued his dominant streak over Roger Federer to reach the Australian Open final for the third time, beating the 17-time major winner 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-3 Friday night to set up a championship decider against No. 8-seeded Stan Wawrinka. With his 23rd win in 33 matches against Federer, the 27-year-old Spaniard set up an ideal chance to win a 14th Grand Slam title and to become the first man to win all four majors at least twice in the Open era. Nadal missed the 2013 Australian Open during a seven-month layoff for illness and a knee injury, but returned to win the French and U.S. Opens among his 10 titles for the season and finished the year at No. 1. He won the Australian Open in 2009, beating Federer in the final, and lost in a five-set, 5-hour, 53-minute 2012 final to Novak Djokovic after ousting Federer in the semis. In other years, hes struggled with injuries -- its the only Grand Slam tournament he hasnt won at least twice. "Its really, really emotional for me to be back on this court, Rod Laver Arena, and to be able to play another final," Nadal said. "I think tonight I played the best match of the tournament. I go on court (against Federer) knowing that is a really tough match and if I am not playing my best, I will not have the chance to win." At the end of the night, Federer knew he wouldnt even be the No. 1-ranked player in Switzerland next week. By reaching his first major final, Wawrinka ensured hed replace Federer as their countrys highest-ranked player for the first time. But the 32-year-old Federer is confident of winning more majors, expecting some coaching from Stefan Edberg and continued improvement in his fitness to help after a slump in 2013, when he didnt reach any of the major finals for the first time in 11 years. "I still think my best tennis is only ahead of me now," said Federer, who reached the Australian Open semifinals for 11 consecutive years. Nadal is now second on the list of players reaching Grand Slam finals, joining Ivan Lendl on 19 -- Federer leads the list with 24. Another Grand Slam title would lift Nadal to equal second on the all-time list with Pete Sampras, who was in the crowd for the match. Nadal has struggled with a blister on the palm of his left hand in his last two matches, but he removed the heavy tape that affected his serve in his quarterfinal win over Grigor Dimitrov and replaced it with one square of adhesive tape. A TV camera got a close-up view of the blister when he took a medical timeout after the first game of the second set, drawing gasps and groans from the crowd. "Too much talk about the blister. The blister is OK," Nadal said in his on-court interview. "The problem ... is the position of the blister, its difficult." But, he said, he didnt feel any pain. He certainly didnt show it if he did. He resisted just about everything Federer threw at him, scrambling to keep balls in play that usually would be winners. Federer served and volleyed, he played with good touch, he played drop shots, he tried everything -- even complaining to the chair umpire about Nadals loud grunting after the tiebreaker -- but his 50 resulting unforced errors doubled the number by his rival. Left-handed Nadal hit 13 of his 28 winners on his powerful forehand, attacking Federers one-handed backhand yet again. "I tried a few things ... then again, Rafa does a good job of neutralizing you," Federer said. "So I guess at times I couldnt quite do what I wanted to do, but thats because of Rafa." The first break of the match came in the sixth game of the second set, giving Nadal a 4-2 lead. That only heightened the crowd support for Federer, who got a standing ovation when he broke Nadal back to make it 2-all in the third set, immediately after dropping serve in the previous game. It noise and chants died down again when Federer was broken again soon after and Nadal finished off the match. Wawrinka beat Tomas Berdych on Thursday night, getting an extra day off ahead of Sundays championship match. Li Na will be hoping for third time lucky in the womens final on Saturday against Dominika Cibulkova. She has reached the finals in three of the past four years, but is yet to win the Australian title. Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci rallied to win the last five games and successfully defended their Australian Open womens doubles title on Friday with a 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 victory over Russian pair Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina. . Kuznetsov, who was selected by the Capitals in the first round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, has been playing for his hometown team Chelyabinsk Traktor of the KHL. [url=http://www.jerseysteelerslockroom.com/AUTHENTIC-JASON-WORILDS-STEELERS-JERS... Worilds Youth Jersey . The defence is doing its part, too. Drew Brees threw a pair of touchdown passes in the first half and the guys on the other side made sure that was enough, sending the Saints to a 17-13 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday night. . -- Eastern Kentucky thrives off creating havoc for others. [url=http://www.jerseysteelerslockroom.com/AUTHENTIC-SENQUEZ-GOLSON-STEELERS-JER... Golson Steelers Jersey . Those lessons were more than enough to overwhelm the Utah Jazz. Lou Williams scored 25 points and the Hawks continued their offensive upswing as they rolled to an easy 118-85 victory over the Jazz on Friday night, winning their third straight and for the fourth time in five games.CALGARY -- The dream scenario for the host city of a Grey Cup is having the home team in it. The Saskatchewan Roughriders made the Regina organizing committee and their fans happy Sunday with a 35-13 upset of the Calgary Stampeders in the West Division final. Chants of "Henry, Henry" rang out in the visitors locker room at McMahon Stadium. Saskatchewan will face the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and quarterback Henry Burris in next Sundays Grey Cup at Mosaic Stadium. The Roughriders will attempt to become the third host team in a row to win the CFLs championship trophy. The Argonauts beat Calgary in Toronto last year to take the Cup and the B.C. Lions won it in Vancouver in 2011. "Thats another part of the storyline, but for us, its about having a Grey Cup at home," Roughrider quarterback Darian Durant said. "We know how hard it is to come to Mosaic for opposing teams. To have forty or forty-five thousand Rider fans, its going to be great." The Ticats punched their ticket to this years championship game with a 36-24 win over the Argonauts in the East Division final earlier Sunday. This years Grey Cup features teams that finished second in their respective divisions and needed to win division semifinals and finals to get there. "We know Rider Nation is fired up," Durant said. "They deserve it and its going to be a fun week." Saskatchewan last played in the Grey Cup in 2009 and 2010 and lost to the Montreal Alouettes in both games. Calgary boasted the best regular-season record in the CFL at 14-4, but could not hang onto the ball Sunday. The No. 1 offence in the regular season turned the football over seven times and had possession of it for just eight minutes and 43 seconds in the first half. "Its hard to explain," Calgary head coach John Hufnagel said. "Obviously were a little bit in shock the way the game unfolded. Having that many turnovers to ruin the game (and) to have that type of tackling by our team, its hard to explain." Trailing 22-6 at halftime, Hufnagel replaced starting quarterback Kevin Glenn with Drew Tate, but the Stampeders managed just one touchdown in the second. Durant completed 24-of-30 passes for 280 yards with touchdown passes to Rob Bagg, Weston Dressler and Chris Getzlaf. Running back Kory Sheets scored on a one-yard touchdown plunge. Kicker Chris Milo made two field goals in the fourth quarter after his first of the game was blocked. Calgarys Rene Paredes made both of his field-goal attempts. Tate threw a touchdown pass to Joe West. Glenn completed 7-of-13 passes for 180 yards and was intercepted twice. Tate was 5 for 11 for 90 yards. Calgary was minus-4 in rushing yards in the first half. Stampeder running back Jon Cornish, the CFLs leading rusher this season, mustered 67 yards in the game. Sheets finished second in rushing to Cornish, but romped for 177 yards Sunday. "Tonight was just about the team winning and team goals," Sheets said.dddddddddddd "There was nothing individual, nothing personal." Calgary was without starting defensive tackles Micah Johnson and Demonte Bolden because of knee injuries suffered in the final game of the regular season. The Roughriders keyed on replacements Junior Turner and Freddie Bishop III. "They were missing their two big plugs inside and we knew that going in," Durant said. "We wanted to exploit that, especially with two guys that havent played all year. We knew they werent in the type of shape they needed to be to stop the run." The Roughriders lost both games at McMahon during the regular season, but their most recent Oct. 26 was by just four points. "The games where we played them earlier this season, we felt like we gave them the games," Durant said. "All along, we felt like we were the better team." Calgary had set a franchise record for the fewest turnovers in a season with 27, which was also the second-lowest in league history. But receivers Mo Price, Jeff Fuller and Brad Sinopoli each fumbled after the catch and turned the ball over. With just over four minutes remaining in the game, returner Larry Taylor lost control of a Roughrider punt. Paul Woldu knocked it out of bounds to give the visitors the ball on Calgarys 32-yard line and Saskatchewan converted the turnover to a field goal. Glenn was intercepted twice and also had an attempted touchdown throw to the end zone knocked down in the first half. Calgary also turned the ball over on downs once. "You go from the highest high to the lowest low," Glenn said. "Right now, its pretty low. Saskatchewan had a banner season in takeways with 53 --their second-highest in 17 seasons -- and they made the most of Calgarys errors. Roughrider defensive back Dwight Anderson, who screamed "Calgary sucks" into media microphones after the loss Oct. 26, thought that Stampeders receiver shouldnt have worn long sleeves. "It was a cold-weather game. The ball was going to be slippery," Anderson said. "Guys were wearing sleeves out there so the ball wont sit well on the sleeves. We just had to go after the ball." Kickoff was under a sunny sky and a temperature of minus-8 with an announced 33,174 in the stadium. A light south wind made it feel more like minus-14 and the temperatures dropped as the sun lowered. Saskatchewan beat the Lions in a cold division semifinal at Mosaic last week. Durant felt that battle-hardened his team well for the West final. "I heard the weather was nice here for the past couple weeks and they werent used to playing in this weather," Durant said. "Going out there and practising in Regina and playing against B.C. in basically minus-20, we were ready for this. "We think the weather played a factor in their ball security." cheap nfl jerseys cheap jerseys cheap jerseys cheap jerseys cheap nfl jerseys wholesale jerseys ' ' '