Wozniacki in Open final
TENNIS
World No 2 Caroline Wozniacki is the first woman through to the Australian Open final after ending the undefeated summer run of unseeded Belgian Elise Mertens.
Seeking her first grand slam title, the Danish star booked her place with a 6-3 7-6 (7-2) victory in one hour and 37 minutes on Rod Laver Arena yesterday.
Wozniacki will face either world No 1 Simona Halep or 2016 champion Angelique Kerber in tomorrow night’s title decider at Melbourne Park.
The 27-year-old will be contesting her third grand slam final after losing the 2009 and 2014 US Open deciders, to Kim Clijsters and Serena Williams respectively.
Wozniacki made an early statement against Mertens, breaking the 22-year-old who was making her first appearance at Melbourne Park in the fourth game of the semi-final.
Wozniacki looked to be cruising to victory after taking the first set with ease and then going up 5-4 in the second and serving for the match.
She took advantage of Merten’s erratic play, with the world No 37 making 34 unforced errors. But two nervy double-faults handed Mertens the break back — and invitation back into the contest.
The Belgian smelt a choke in the offing, reeling off seven straight points to go up 6-5.
Mertens had two set points but couldn’t close it out herself, with Wozniacki belting a forehand to force a tiebreak.
With the pressure on both players, Wozniacki’s consistency and big-match experience proved key with the former world No 1 dominating the tiebreak.
Meanwhile, a fired up Roger Federer has booked his 14th Australian Open semifinal appearance, the defending champion defeating Czech Tomas Berdych in straight sets on Wednesday night.
The Swiss maestro butted heads with the chair umpire during a feisty opening set but regrouped to claim a 7-6 (7-1) 6-3 6-4 victory in two hours and 14 minutes.
South Korea’s Hyeon Chung, who continued his dream run with a straight-sets win over Tennys Sandgren, awaits in the semifinals with Federer aiming to claim a 20th grand slam crown.
Berdych’s record of six wins against Federer, including quarterfinal triumphs at Wimbledon and the US Open, is among the best on the tour, and the 32-year-old made a strong start.
An early break had Berdych up 4-1 in the first set with Federer appearing to struggle for rhythm.
Down 3-5, Federer challenged a Berdych serve but was unable to survey the evidence due to a faulty hawk-eye video display.
Advised that the call had gone against him and he had lost his last remaining challenge, Federer admonished chair umpire Fergus Murphy in a rare display of annoyance from the ice-cool veteran.
‘‘You can’t steal my challenge now,’’ Federer told the official.
‘‘Are you comfortable with this? Are you OK with it? You can say ‘OK, he’s already been screwed over once; you don’t want it to happen twice in a row’.
‘‘It’s your call; you’re the umpire.’’ The incident appeared to light a fire under Federer, who won four of the next five games and saved a set point before storming through a tiebreak to take the first set.
Running Berdych ragged with some of his best shot-making of the tournament, Federer smashed 61 winners – almost three times as many as his opponent – and won 23 points at the net.