Federer makes 43rd Grand Slam semi-final
DEFENDING champion Roger Federer swept into a record 14th Australian Open semi-final with an immaculate straight sets win over long-time rival Tomas Berdych yesterday.
The second seed cruised to a 76 (7-1), 6-3, 6-4 win and will face unseeded South Korean Chung Hyeon tomorrow for a place in the final.
The 19-time Grand Slam champion, who hasn’t lost in five matches against Berdych in Melbourne, will play in his 43rd Grand Slam semi-final, a record for the post-1968 Open Era.
The Swiss legend has yet to face Chung, who has got past six-time champion Novak Djokovic and world No4 Alexander Zverev to get to the last four.
Federer’s latest victory was his 92nd in 105 matches in Melbourne to make the Australian Open his most successful Grand Slam in terms of matches won along with Wimbledon.
“I’m happy I got out of the first set. It ended up being the key of the match,” said Federer.
“Tomas played well in the first couple of sets and in the third set he dropped a little bit.
“It was tough and could have gone either way.”
Federer has now won 14 out of 14 quarter-finals in Melbourne and has yet to drop a set in this tournament.
Looking ahead to his semi-final against giant-killer Chung, Federer said: “He’s incredibly impressive in his movement, he reminds me a lot of Novak, in the way he is able to slide forehand and backhand and use the hardcourt as a claycourt.
“He gets balls back and stays aggressive in defence, so I’m really excited to be playing him, he’s got nothing to lose, I will tell myself the same and we’ll see what happens.”
Federer is coming off an extraordinary 2017, when he won a fifth Australian Open title and a record eighth at Wimbledon, after returning from an injury lay-off.
The 36-year-old is bidding to win his 20th Grand Slam title and is the oldest man to reach the semi-finals in Australia since Ken Rosewall (42 years) in 1977.
It was in Melbourne a year ago where he lit the fuse on his latelife tennis renaissance, beating Berdych, Kei Nishikori, Mischa Zverev and Stan Wawrinka before downing great rival Rafael Nadal in a five-set final classic.