Nadal transformed from king of clay to genius on grass

Clay-court specialists were not meant to play like this. Rafael Nadal, the king of terre battue, swept into his first Wimbledon final last night with a thrilling display of grass-court tennis to beat Marcos Baghdatis and earn his fifth confrontation of the year with Roger Federer.

It is some final to relish as the world's two leading players renew combat in what is fast becoming one of the sport's great rivalries. Federer, the world No 1, has lost only four matches this year, but they have all been finals against the 20-year-old.

Although Federer, indisputably the world's best grass-court player after winning the title here for the last three years and winning 47 matches in a row on the surface, will start as the favourite, it would take a brave man to bet against Nadal winning his third Grand Slam title to add to his two French Open crowns.

"I'm going to have a very, very difficult match," Nadal said. "I'm going to play against one of the best players in history, especially on this surface. I'll have to play the best match of my life to win. I fear Roger on any surface, but here more than anywhere. If you look at his matches here he's winning them very easily."

He added: "I try my best in practice, in every match, on every point. I'm playing with a lot of concentration and great motivation."

The Spaniard, who beat Baghdatis 6-1, 7-5, 6-3, will be attempting to become the first man to win the French and Wimbledon titles in the same year since Bjorn Borg in 1980. It will also be the first time that the same two men have contested those two finals since Jaroslav Drobny and Frank Sedgman in 1952. It is even 14 years since the same men - Stefan Edberg and Jim Courier - contested back-to-back Grand Slam finals.

Nadal, who is the youngest Wimbledon finalist since 18-year-old Boris Becker in 1986, had shown his determination to develop his grass-court game last month, when he started practising at Queen's Club only 24 hours after his Paris triumph. Critics felt that his serve was not good enough to test the best on grass, yet he has been broken only twice in the whole fortnight here and his average serving speed has gone up by eight mph since Paris to 113mph.

On clay, Nadal often plays from eight or 10 feet behind the baseline. He has played several feet further forward to cope with the lower bounce on grass and has also shown a willingness to attack the net when the opportunity arises, volleying with ever-growing confidence. Even his cries of "Vamos!" have been replaced with "C'mon!" Just in the last week his game has gone up several notches, for it was only four matches ago, in the second round, that he had to come back from two sets down to beat Robert Kendrick, a qualifier.

After a one-sided first set in which Baghdatis never got going, the two men produced tennis that was as sunny as their Mediterranean island homes. The Majorcan is usually reckoned to be the crowd-pleaser, but the favourite here was clearly Baghdatis. The Wimbledon public have warmed to his broad smile and flamboyant style, even if he knocked out Britain's biggest hope, Andy Murray, earlier in the week.

Baghdatis, the 21-year-old No 18 seed, made a nervous start, dropping his serve to love in the opening game and losing the first six points. Nadal broke again in the fifth and seventh games and closed out the set in 30 minutes with a delightful backhand cross-court return.

When Baghdatis found his range on his serve early in the second set, his confidence and his game improved dramatically. His groundstrokes carried more conviction and Nadal was regularly caught out by his cleverly disguised drop shots.

Initially forced by the power and depth of Nadal's strokes to play from well behind the baseline, Baghdatis eventually managed to take the game to his opponent and frequently surprised the Spaniard with his speed around the court. Baghdatis might look as though he likes his pastitsio too much, but he regularly chased down Nadal's drop shots.

Nadal kept struggling to hold his serve in the second set, but kept his nerve on the important points. The Spaniard failed to take two set points at 5-4 as Baghdatis saved himself with a forehand winner and a smart volley. Two games later, however, Nadal did not scorn another opportunity, taking the set with a superb forehand winner.

In the final set, Baghdatis had trouble keeping his feet as the grass grew damp. Nadal made the decisive break to lead 3-1, but the Cypriot refused to throw in the towel. However, his backhand into the net after a 19-stroke rally set up match point, which Nadal converted with a smash. "I had a few chances but I didn't take them," Baghdatis said. "It's frustrating."