The 21-year-old Nadal, who has ranked No. 2 behind Federer for a record 147 consecutive weeks, is now through to his second final at the Rothenbaum. He reached the title match for the first time last year, where he lost to Roger Federer and had his 81-match clay court winning streak snapped, before going on to win his third successive Roland Garros crown (d. Federer).
Federer and Nadal also featured in the final of ATP Masters Series Monte-Carlo four weeks ago, where Nadal extended his series lead to 9-6 over the Swiss as he claimed his 10th Masters Series shield.
"I play in Roger’s home, because he won here 4 times, this is probably his best clay court," said Nadal. "It will be a very tough match. It will be tough, too, because he played a little over an hour and I played over 3 hours. I hope, this doesn’t affect me too much tomorrow. I will go on court with my best motivation. This is a Mastes Series where I haven’t won so far, so that is a special motivation for me, too. Just go on court, and try my best."
Nadal was made to work hard for his final place. In a first set featuring five breaks of serve under the roof on Center Court, Djokovic began in blistering form, breaking Nadal early to lead 3-0. The lead was short lived though as Nadal went on to break back with a forehand winner to level. The Spaniard looked to have got the upper hand as the pressure began to tell on Djokovic, and Nadal broke again to lead 5-4. However, with Nadal serving for the set, Djokovic relaxed, went for his shots and it paid off as he leveled for 5-5.
With the atmosphere rising, last year’s finalist Nadal found more outstanding tennis and a forehand pass broke Djokovic’s serve again and gave Nadal the 6-5 lead. This time the 21-year-old did not falter and he served it out after 1hr., 12min.
Both men continued to produce their finest tennis for much of the second set, before Djokovic was able to edge out a break of serve to lead 3-2 with some deep, aggressive hitting bullying Nadal into errors. With Nadal serving at 2-5 15-30 a reflex volley from Djokovic set up two set points and the pressure told on Nadal as he put a forehand wide for Djokovic to level the match.
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Djokovic was unable to capitalize on his momentum though, as Nadal immediately earned a break of serve in the third set with a wonderful backhand cross court pass to lead 1-0. After failing to convert break back chances, Djokovic’s resistance began to crumble and he surrendered his serve again to trail 2-5. In an epic final game, Nadal missed four match points and saved four break points before closing it out on his fifth match point as Djokovic’s drop shot failed to make it over the net.
"It was great to be a part of a fantastic tennis match," said Djokovic. "I felt that the quality of tennis today was on a really high level and I’m happy for that. Unfortunately, it finished with a loss for me but I have to take only the best out of this match."
"I think special because we played very good tennis, at a very good level," said Nadal. "It was an amazing match. I think Djokovic played very good on clay. Especially today. I probably played one of my best matches."
Nadal, who leads the ATP circuit with a 36-7 match wins record this season, is bidding for his third title of the season to add to his Monte-Carlo and Barcelona (d. Ferrer) trophies. He has also finished as a runner-up twice in 2008, falling to Mikhail Youzhny in Chennai and Nikolay Davydenko at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.
The Mallorcan now improves to a 109-24 lifetime record in ATP Masters Series play since contesting his first event in Monte-Carlo five years ago. He has advanced to eight of the nine ATP Masters Series tournaments in his career (except Cincinnati) and has won 10 titles in 14 finals.
World No. 3 Novak Djokovic (pictured above right) climbed to within 310 points of Nadal after claiming his fourth ATP Masters Series title in Rome last week (d. Wawrinka). The 20-year-old Serb, who leads the ATP circuit with three titles, was contesting his sixth semifinal in eight tournaments this year.
In January he captured his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open, defeating Roger Federer in the semifinals and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final, before claiming his third ATP Masters Series title in Indian Wells (d. Fish).
Rafael Nadal (pictured) overcame Novak Djokovic in a titanic battle 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 after 3hrs., 3min. Saturday to keep his No. 2 spot in the South African Airways ATP Rankings and set up a final against No. 1 Roger Federer at Masters Series Hamburg presented by EON Hanse. 
Nadal, who leads the ATP circuit with a 36-7 match wins record this season, is bidding for his third title of the season to add to his Monte-Carlo and Barcelona (d. Ferrer) trophies. He has also finished as a runner-up twice in 2008, falling to Mikhail Youzhny in Chennai and Nikolay Davydenko at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.