Australian Open: Clement stages sensational comeback

Arnaud Clement staged the best recovery of his life in the biggest match of his life to reach the Australian Open final in Melbourne.

On the very brink of defeat against fellow Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean in the third set, Clement saved two match points and came back to win a dramatic four-hour battle 5-7 2-6 7-6 7-5 6-2.

Yet he needed five match points of his own in that final game before clinching a remarkable victory over his close friend.

The 15th seed, never beyond the quarter-finals in a Grand Slam before, will start as a huge underdog when he faces defending champion Andre Agassi on Sunday.

But it is worth remembering that only four months ago he knocked Agassi out of the US Open. And the American was the holder then as well.

For 22-year-old Grosjean it was a traumatic defeat. He appeared to have victory in the bag, but his nerve seemed to get worse the nearer the winning line came into view.

His first match point was at 5-3 in the third and even when that went begging, he still had his service game to come.

He got to 40-30 in it and all seemed well, but Clement came to the net, hit a volley winner - and never looked back.

Clement won the tie-break 7/4, made the decisive fourth set break in the 11th game - after serving to save the match again at 4-5 - and knew then it was Grosjean who was on the ropes.

Clement showed no mercy as he built a 5-1 lead, but getting to the line himself needed all his nerve. One of the four match points he lost was a double fault, but it was all over when Grosjean netted a forehand.

At four hours and eight minutes it had been the longest match of this Australian Open.

It was the third meeting between the two doubles partners. Clement won the other two, both best-of-three setters, but each one went to a deciding set.

He also had the slightly better Grand Slam record coming into the championship, reaching the fourth round at the 1999 US Open, the same stage in Melbourne last year and then knocking out defending champion Agassi en route to the quarter-finals of US Open four months ago.

Grosjean's previous best performance was Wimbledon in 1998, when he reached the fourth round. Tim Henman knocked him out in Melbourne last year.

Neither had been seeded before, yet both had dropped only one set in getting through to their first semi-final.

The last Frenchman to appear in any Grand Slam final was Cedric Pioline, who lost to Pete Sampras at Wimbledon in 1997.