Federer in seventh Australian Open final
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA It took just over an hour for Roger Federer to fix one anomalous statistic in his extraordinary career.
The defending champ was leading Hyeon Chung 6-1, 5-2 when the Korean retired in the second set of their Australian Open semifinal Friday, and 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. He’s now 7-7 (still well below his marks at other majors: 11-1 at Wimbledon, 7-3 at the U.S. Open, and 5-2 at Roland Garros).
“This one feels bittersweet,” Federer said. “I’m incredibly happy to be in the finals, but not like this.”
He’s well poised for Sunday’s match against No. 6-seeded Marin Cilic. The final will be Federer’s record seventh at the Australian Open and 30th at a Grand Slam.
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.
Chung also had an incredible run at Melbourne Park, becoming the first Korean to reach a semifinal at a tennis major and attracting plenty of attention for beating No. 4-seeded Alexander Zverev and six-time Australian Open champ Novak Djokovic. But it took a toll. 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” before he quit.
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.
Earlier, Babos and Kristina Mladenovic won the Australian Open women’s doubles crown after beating Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina 6-4, 6-3.
The Associated Press