Rafa Nadal will play Fernando Gonzalez of Chile for the chance to win the Olympic tennis gold medal after both came through epic semifinals on Friday.

Rafa, who takes over the world number one ranking on Monday, beat third ranked Novak Djokovic of Serbia, 6-4 1-6 6-4, overcoming the loss of the middle set to win in two hours 10 minutes.

It will be the first Olympic medal for Rafael who closed out the match in dramatic fashion.

On match point he miraculously scrambled to retrieve two overhead slams by Djokovic. When the flustered Serb shanked a third overhead wide, Nadal collapsed to the hard court in jubilation.

With the victory, Rafa now leads 10-4 over Djokovic in career and is now just one match away from adding the gold medal to this season's seven-trophy haul including the French Open and Wimbledon.

"For me it's a dream have be in this final," he said. "When I arrived here, I didn't expect be in the final. I was very tired, with a lot of matches and not playing my best tennis.

"But during the week I've felt better and better. So today was very important. Even if I lose the final I'll have one medal for me and for my country."