Federer closer to 20th Grand Slam crown

MELBOURNE — It took just over an hour for Roger Federer to fix one anomalous statistic in his extraordinary career.

Defending champion Federer, who was leading Hyeon Chung 6-1, 5-2 when the Korean retired in the second set of their Australian Open semifinal on Friday night, is within one win of a 20th Grand Slam singles title.

Going into the match against Chung, Federer had a below-par semifinals record at Melbourne Park, only six wins out of 13.

After one hour and two minutes under the closed roof on Rod Laver Arena, he’s on par, 7-7. It wasn’t how Federer expected to advance.

“You do take the faster matches whenever you can because there’s enough wear and tear on the body,” he said. “The thought process is not like ‘What would have been better?’

“That’s why this one feels bittersweet. I’m incredibly happy to be in the finals, but not like this.”

Also Friday, Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and Croatia’s Mate Pavic reached the mixed doubles final with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Brazil’s Bruno Soares and Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova.

Rohan Bopanna of India and Hungary’s Timea Babos posted a 7-5, 5-7, 10-6 win over Brazil’s Marcelo Demoliner and Spain’s Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez in the other mixed doubles semifinal.

Against Federer, Chung tried everything to disguise the pain of the raw patches on his left foot which, his agent explained, were “blisters under blisters under blisters.”

Federer’s conversion rate for finals in Australia is much better – the only time he lost a championship match was in 2009 against Rafael Nadal. So he’s well poised for Sunday’s match against No. 6-seeded Marin Cilic. Cilic has had an extra day of rest but Federer was hardly taxed on Friday night, and occupied for only an hour.

Cilic was hampered by blisters when he lost to Federer in last year’s Wimbledon final, but he has made a relatively pain-free run through the other half of the draw, including a quarterfinal win over an injured Nadal.