Rafael Nadal Stunned by David Ferrer in Australian Open Quarters

Rafael Nadal's dream at the "Rafa Slam" came to a crashing halt on Wednesday night at the Australian Open. The top-seeded Spaniard lost to compatriot David Ferrer in straight sets 6-4, 6-2, 6-3, as Ferrer earned his first berth into the Australian Open semifinals.

Nadal, who was treated with a medical ailment in the first set, suffered an apparent hamstring injury to his left leg early on in the match that hampered his play throughout the contest. For a majority of the match, Nadal grimaced in pain, lacked strength in his leg and moved poorly. However, even with Nadal's injury aside, Ferrer managed to play a dominant contest as he earned his first win against Nadal since 2007, having lost seven straight.

The 24-year-old Nadal, who won last year's French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open, was seeking to presently hold every major title with a win at this year's Australian Open.

But on Wednesday, last year's most dominating player on the men's tour lost his first Grand Slam match in 26 contests. Nadal's last loss in a major came a year ago at the Australian Open -- in the same round -- when he had to retire with a knee injury against Andy Murray.

Unlike last year, though, the nine-time Grand Slam champion and 2009 Australian Open victor battled to the end on Wednesday.

The match started off bizarrely, with Ferrer dictating pace from the outset and breaking Nadal to take a 2-0 lead off a 22-point game that took approximately 17 minutes.

Nadal then won the third game, but took a medical timeout after injuring himself at some point during the first few games. The evaluation of Nadal's injury was done in an off-court setting, so the public was not immediately privy the exact details of the top-ranked player's injury. However, Nadal returned to the court with his leg taped and ESPN later intimated in the second set that it was a hamstring injury.

In the first set, the injury-plagued Nadal lost the fourth game and quickly found himself down 3-1. After another visit from a trainer, Nadal held to 4-2, but Ferrer's vicious groundstrokes, splendid footwork and overbearing return game proved too much for Nadal in the first set.

To start the second set, Nadal looked rejuvenated and broke Ferrer at love to go up 2-1. Ferrer, the seventh-seeded Spaniard, looked to be unraveling. But the energetic 28-year-old Ferrer earned another break of serve back to level the second set at 2-2. Ferrer then built upon his break and took a 3-2 lead before the match took another strange turn.

In celebration of Australia Day -- the official national day of Australia -- fireworks were set off nearby, which allowed Nadal to leave the court and recover.

After an extended break of nearly 10 minutes for the fireworks, Nadal was back on the court and looked to be in good spirits. The top-ranked Spaniard was moving well, but Ferrer managed to break Nadal again to go up 4-2 with an array of textbook shots from the baseline. Ferrer then held at love in the seventh game to go up 5-2, and easily broke Nadal with a handful of powerful baseline winners in the eighth game to take a commanding two-set lead.

Nadal, who had his head down during the changeover, looked injured and listless as he took the court to start the third. Ferrer took an early 1-0 lead and commanded every point during his opening service game. Ferrer continued his spectacular returning, quickly breaking Nadal to go up 2-0. During the third game, Nadal lacked any type of movement, as Ferrer took every service point to go up 3-0.

A valiant Nadal -- who was almost in tears as he took the court for the fourth game -- courageously managed to take three of the next five games. But Ferrer's lead was too much for Nadal to overcome, winning the match 6-4, 6-2, 6-3, sealing it with a powerful serve and forehand winner on the final point of the contest that left Nadal motionless.

Ferrer, who played spectacularly, won 72 percent of his first-serve points and 57 percent of his second-serve points. He generated 44 winners, while committing 32 unforced errors. Most impressively, Ferrer broke Nadal seven times in the match and limited the top-ranked Spaniard to a first-serve winning percentage of 55 and a second-serve winning percentage of 37. Due to injury and Ferrer's spectacular play, Nadal uncharacteristically committed 34 unforced errors and only 19 winners.

The seventh-seeded Ferrer will now face fifth-seeded Andy Murray in the semifinals, while second-seeded Roger Federer takes on third-seeded Novak Djokovic.