Points won directly behind the serve:
29 % Baghdatis – 46 of 154
15 % Nalbandian – 22 of 141

The 3-hour 27-minute night session encounter of two players with similar body building, similar hairstyles & similar game-styles. The three years older Nalbandian [4] entered the court as a heavy favorite despite losing their only previous meeting (Basel ’05) & he was on his way to get an easy victory as he led 5:1* (30/0) in the 2nd set. Baghdatis [54] stormed back, but the Australia Day fireworks that extended over two games, disturbed him distinctively; he seemed unaware that something like that would happen during his match. Nevertheless he took the next two sets in a good style, but trailed 0:2* (0/30) in the decider (the toilet break included to the match-time before that set lasted eight minutes). Baghdatis levelled at two games apiece, yet Nalbandian built a two-game advantage once again. However, from 2:4* the Cypriot won 17 of the last 21 points, mainly thanks to Nalbandian’s bizarre errors. When Baghdatis was serving for a place in the final at 5:4 (15-all) the heavy rain came, which halted the semifinal for 15 minutes. After the resumption, Baghdatis converted his second match point with an ace to reach the only Grand Slam final in his career at the age of 20. En route to the final he needed three five-setters against much higher ranked opponents (Stepanek, Ljubicic, Nalbandian).