A lookahead to today’s action

There’ll be at least one woman in the Australian Open final who is yet to win a major.

Second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki is up against 22-year-old Elise Mertens, who has reached the last four on her debut at the Australian Open. In the second of the semifinals, 2016 Australian and US Open champion Angelique Kerber faces No. 1-seeded Simona Halep, a two-time French Open finalist who has reached the semifinals at Melbourne Park for the first time.

Kerber, as the then No. 1, and Halep both lost in the first round last year. Two-time US Open runner-up Wozniacki was out in the

“Yeah, but you can’t steal my challenge,” Federer told Murphy. “Do you feel comfortable with this? You’re OK with it?”

Seven points later, he eventually broke Berdych to get back on serve, and then won the tiebreaker. The match was as good as over.

Federer later said he just wanted an explanation from the chair, and agreed that blowing off steam helped his cause.

Chung beat 97th-ranked Tennys Sandgren 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the afternoon match.

He hadn’t let up in upset wins over No. 4 Alexander Zverev or six-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, but he let his guard down in the last game against Sandgren and needed six match points to finish it off.

In an on-court interview, he introduced the audience to his parents and his coach, and took the microphone to speak in Korean to millions of new tennis fans back home.

The 58th-ranked Chung is the lowest-ranked man to reach the Australian Open semifinals since Marat Safin in 2004. third round and has never contest an Australian Open final.

Kerber has a 4-2 edge in tourlevel main draw matches against Halep, the 26-year-old Romanian who has 16 career titles. Among the semifinalists, Halep has spent the longest time on court: 9 hours, 56 minutes. By contrast, Kerber has breezed through five rounds in 6:19.

Wozniacki has been ranked No. 1, has won 27 titles and reached the US Open final twice, but is still yet to win a major. Mertens, who trains at Kim Clijsters’ academy in Belgium, has won two titles at tour level — she won the Hobart International in 2017 and

With Chung already through, and Kyle Edmund playing No. 6 Marin Cilic in the other half of the draw, it’s the first time since 1999 that multiple unseeded players have reached the Australian Open semifinals.

Federer has been keeping an eye on Chung’s progress.

Chung, who won the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals title in November, was too consistent for Sandgren, a 26-year-old American who had never won a match at a Grand Slam tournament or beaten a top-10 player until last week.

The women’s semifinals were determined earlier Wednesday, when top-ranked Simona Halep recovered from an early break to win nine straight games in a 6-3, 6-2 win over No. 6 Karolina Pliskova, and 2016 Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber routed U.S. Open finalist Madison Keys 6-1, 6-2. In the other semifinal match, No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki will play 22year-old Elise Mertens.

Halep, a two-time French Open finalist, has had a tough road — having to save match points in a successfully month.

On the men’s side, No. 6 Marin Cilic and Kyle Edmund are vying to become only the second player from outside the so-called ‘Big 4’ (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray) to reach an Australian Open final since Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s runner-up finish in 2008. Stan Wawrinka won the 2014 title.

Cilic has returned to the Australian Open semifinals for the first time since 2010. The 2014 US Open champion was leading topranked Nadal 2-0 in the fifth set when the 16-time major winner retired from their quarterfinal defended it this

After losing in the Australian Open quarterfinals on Wednesday, Tennys Sandgren saved his final shot of the tournament for the media.

Sandgren opened his news conference following a 6-4, 7-6 (5), 63 loss to Hyeon Chung by reading a prepared statement directed at the media that has scrutinized his Twitter feed during his unexpected run at Melbourne Park.

“With a handful of follows and some likes on Twitter, my fate has been sealed in your minds,” Sandgren said, reading from his mobile phone. “To write an edgy story, to create sensationalist coverage, there are a few lengths you wouldn’t go to to mark me as the man you desperately want me to be.”

With his prepared statement yesterday, Sandgren made clear he’s done explaining his tweets.

“You seek to put people in these little boxes so that you can order the world in your already assumed preconceived ideas,” he said, addressing reporters at his news conference. “You strip away any individuality for the sake of demonizing by way of the collective.”

Refusing to take any more questions about social media, Sandgren then shifted gears and offered praise for his quarterfinal opponent, Chung. with a muscle injury in his right hip. That ended a 3-hour, 47minute contest.

Edmund, ranked 49th, had never been beyond the second round at Melbourne Park, or beyond the fourth round at any of the majors. He beat U.S. Open finalist Kevin Anderson in the first round and upset No. 3 Grigor Dimitrov in the quarterfinals, scoring the biggest win of his career. If he reaches the final, he could break into the top 20 for the first time and overhaul five-time Australian Open finalist Murray — who is recovering from surgery on his right hip — as the British No. 1.

Rod Laver Arena

Storm Sanders, Australia and Marc Polmans, Australia, vs. Marcelo Demoliner, Brazil and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, Spain Elise Mertens, Belgium, vs. Caroline Wozniacki (2), Denmark Simona Halep (1), Romania, vs. Angelique Kerber (21), Germany Marin Cilic (6), Croatia, vs. Kyle Edmund, Britain Robert Farah, Colombia and Juan Sebastian Cabal (11), Colombia, vs. Bob Bryan, United States and Mike Bryan (6), United States

Margaret Court Arena

Jan-Lennard Struff, Germany and Ben Mclachlan, Japan, vs. Oliver Marach, Austria and Mate Pavic (7), Croatia Edouard Roger-Vasselin, France and Andrea Sestini Hlavackova, Czech Republic, vs. Bruno Soares, Brazil and Ekaterina Makarova, Russia Gabriela Dabrowski, Canada and Mate Pavic, Croatia, vs. Matwe Middelkoop, Netherlands and Johanna Larsson, Sweden

Show Court 3

Xiyu Wang (9), China, vs. En Shuo Liang (2), Taiwan Xin Yu Wang (1), China, vs. Naho Sato (5), Japan Aidan Mchugh, Britain, vs. Rinky Hijikata, Australia Violet Apisah, Australia and Lulu Radovcic (7), Switzerland, vs. Simona Waltert, Switzerland and Xiyu Wang (2), China

TODAY FORECAST

Humid, partly cloudy, high of 27 Celsius

YESTERDAY’S WEATHER

Mostly sunny, high of 24 C

STAT OF THE DAY

1 — Chung is the first Korean to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam tennis tournament.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“All the people is watching Australian Open now because we make history in Korea.” — Chung, talking about potentially millions of new tennis fans in his home country.