Nadal edges exhibition thriller

What began as an exhibition became an epic as the world's two best players slugged it out on a court that was grass at one end, clay at the other, on Nadal's home island of Mallorca.

In the end, it was the 20-year-old world number two who snatched a 7-5 4-6 7-6 (12/10) victory over the world number one.

Both players are undisputed champions of their respective surfaces, Nadal last week extending his world-record winning streak on clay to 72 matches, while in winning his fourth straight Wimbledon crown last summer, Federer racked up a record 48th successive victory on grass.

Neither player had defeated the other on his favoured surface, with Nadal having won all five clay-court meetings, including the last two French Open finals, while their only grass-court meeting came in last year's Wimbledon final.

The opening three games today went with serve, Nadal kicking off proceedings by serving from the clay end before, despite serving on grass, Federer lost his way to hand Nadal a 3-1 lead.

The Swiss star recovered the break from the clay, but Nadal held on grass and broke Federer from the opposite end to take the set.

The world number one came out fighting in the second set, immediately breaking Nadal, who was serving on his favoured clay, and that proved to be enough to eventually take the set 6-4 and level the match.

The pair traded breaks at the start of the third, which eventually went to a tie-break.

Federer claimed the first mini-break to go 2-0 up, and led 4-2 at the changeover but Nadal came storming back on his favoured surface to force another change of ends at 6-6 and his battling qualities finally told as he broke at 11-10 for victory.