Federer welcomes newrivals ahead of Chung duel
ANOTHER day, another set of milestones passed by Roger Federer. The 36-year-old Swiss became the oldest semi-finalist here at the Australian Open for 41 years thanks to yesterday’s emphatic victory over one of his more familiar rivals.
Federer was facing Tomas Berdych in Grand Slam competition for the 10th time and the match went the same way as seven of their previous confrontations as the world No 2 won 7-6, 6-3, 6-4 to secure a semi-final meeting with Korea’s Hyeon Chung, who at 21 is 15 years his junior.
With 93 victories at Melbourne Park, this is Federer’s most successful Grand Slam tournament in terms of match wins. Tomorrow will see his 14th appearance in an Australian Open semi-final — since 2003 the only year in which he has missed out was 2015 — and his 43rd in all Grand Slam tournaments.
Federer’s serene progress through the field has been in stark contrast to the fortunes of his four greatest rivals of the last decade, who are all nursing injuries.
Andy Murray missed the tournament because of hip surgery, Stan Wawrinka and Novak Djokovic suffered early exits in their first appearances for six months because of knee and elbow injuries respectively, while Rafael Nadal retired hurt with a hip muscle problem in the fifth set of his quarter-final against Marin Cilic on Tuesday.
In contrast, Federer has sailed through his five matches here without any sign of a physical problem and without dropping a set. At two hours and 14 minutes, his victory over Berdych was his longest match of the fortnight so far.
Berdych, nevertheless, got off to a fine start and led 5-2 as the defending champion struggled to find his range. Federer’s mood was not helped by a row towards the end of the first set with the umpire, Fergus Murphy, when the Hawk-Eye video replay system failed to function properly.
However, the Swiss broke back in the ninth game, saved one set point with a backhand winner at 4-5 and another at 5-6 when Berdych missed a backhand. The tie-break was a mismatch, with Federer winning 7-1.
Federer took the second set with a single break of serve in the eighth game and in the third set had the better of three successive breaks of serve from 1-1 before serving out for victory.
Chung, Federer’s semi-final opponent, who has already knocked out Djokovic and Alexander Zverev, reached his first Grand Slam semi-final by beating Tennys Sandgren 6-4, 7-6, 6-3. He has never played Federer.
“I’m very excited to play Chung,” Federer said. “I thought he played an incredible match against Novak.
“To beat him here is one of the tough things to do in our sport, I believe. I know that Novak maybe wasn’t at 110 per cent, but he was all right. He was giving it a fight till the very end. To close it out, that was mighty impressive.”
He added: “I think it’s an interesting match for me. I’ll definitely have to look into how I need to play against him because he has some great qualities, especially defensively, like Novak has.”
Federer welcomed the fact that young players like Chung and Edmund were breaking through. “I think it’s a good thing,” he said.
“They got to make a move. I find it disappointing when their breakthroughs come at 27, because then we know them for seven years, let’s say. I like it when we don’t know the guys.
“I hardly know Chung. I’ve hardly spoken to him. I had one Nike appearance once with Edmund over in London. That’s about it. Maybe otherwise I’ve shaken his hand twice and spoken a few words to him. In a way I like it, because it’s really something totally new to me.
“It’s not going to happen all the time. We like our rivalries that do exist on the tour. New names are good, from time to time, of course for the tour.”
Federer said that he had sent a message to Nadal wishing him well after watching the Spaniard suffer with his hip injury the previous evening. However, Nadal last night revealed that the injury was not as serious as had been feared.
A scan on the world No 1’s injured right hip confirmed that he had torn a muscle, but the injury is expected to heal quickly. He will rest on his return to Spain and hopes to resume practice within a fortnight.
Nadal is next due to compete in Acapulco at the end of February before heading to the backto-back Masters Series tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami in March before the start of the clay-court season.
“Three weeks is the normal time to totally recover and he will resume his tennis schedule as planned,” the 31-year-old Spaniard’s spokesman said.