Gonzalez reaches Australian final

Tennis:  Fernando Gonzalez produced another spectacular Australian Open display to demolish Tommy Haas and set up a final meeting…

Tennis: Fernando Gonzalez produced another spectacular Australian Open display to demolish Tommy Haas and set up a final meeting with Roger Federer.

The conqueror of Rafael Nadal blew his German opponent away to record a 6-1 6-3 6-1 victory on the Rod Laver Arena at Melbourne Park.

The Chilean, who has also beaten James Blake and Lleyton Hewitt at the tournament, did not face a single break point in the match as his serve continued to impress.

Gonzalez made a storming start, breaking immediately before sweeping through the first set in just 28 minutes.

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There was ironic applause when Haas won his first point of the match - the 12th of the contest.

With the 10th seed using his awesome forehand to full effect in the second set, Haas was soon in deep trouble.

The Santiago-born Gonzalez held serve in the first game of the second set and a Haas double fault gave him another break and a 2-0 lead.

The Chilean then served for the second set at 5-3 and gave himself two set points with some more assertive tennis and sealed it at the first attempt as Haas netted with a cross-court shot under pressure from his opponent. The second set had lasted 35 minutes.

A break in the first game of the third set showed Haas simply had no answers to Gonzalez's game and he went on to break twice more to wrap up a quickfire victory.

The match statistics were mightily impressive from Gonzalez, who will now contest his first Grand Slam final.

He hit just three unforced errors in the match, while his winner count of 42 was more than double that of his opponent who won just 13 points on Gonzalez's serve.

On this form, Gonzalez should give defending champion Federer - who has yet to drop a set - his toughest test of the tournament so far in Sunday's title decider.  PA