Rafa Nadal admits he wants to continue playing 'as long as possible' after Australian Open

The 20-time Grand Slam winner took to the court on Tuesday afternoon and battled through injury to see off Canada's Denis Shapovalov in a five-set thriller.

That ensured the Spaniard reached the semi-finals, where he is now set to face seventh-seed Matteo Berrettini on Friday.

Having struggled with a foot injury all of last year, Nadal left it late to even confirm he'd participate in the Australian Open, and now the 35-year-old is in contention to win a record-breaking 21st Grand Slam title.

If he goes on to win it, he'll surpass great rivals Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in terms of titles won, but Nadal insists that isn't what is motivating him.

"I am just enjoying playing tennis," said Nadal ahead of his clash with Matteo Berrettini on Friday.

"Of course I want to keep winning, but more than because I want to achieve or I want to have more than the others, it's because I love what I am doing. I want to keep doing this as long as possible.

"Of course the last six months there have been a lot of doubts if I would be able to keep going. But now I feel good. We are in a position that we won a tournament, we are in the semi-finals of the Australian Open, so that's amazing for me.

"In terms of what can happen in the future, honestly I really don't care that much. I don't believe that my future happiness is going to depend on if I achieve one more grand slam than the others or if the others achieve more grand slams than me."

But while Nadal plays down talk of his rivalry among the famed 'top three', there's no doubt that he'll be putting his all into winning just a second Australian Open title.

His run so far has many similarities to that of Federer's back in 2017, when the Swiss legend entered with low expectations following a knee injury, but ended up winning the title - beating Nadal in the final.

Nadal came out on top in their only previous meeting, at the 2019 US Open.

But the now-25-year-old has progressed plenty since then, and will be looking to cause an upset against one of his childhood idols.

"This is a great opportunity again for me.

"I watched him so many times in this tournament and other tournaments, cheering for him, and playing with him in Rod Laver in the semi-finals is something that I dreamed about when I was a kid.

"But now I really want to win this match. I know I can do it. It's going to be a really tough one. But I'm in the semis in a slam for the third time, so it means that this is my level and I want to get further."

Their semi-final clash is set to start early on Friday morning, estimated to start around 3:30am GMT.