On the air
AUTO RACING 2 p.m. FOX — WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Rolex 24 at Daytona, at Daytona, Fla. 5 p.m. FS2 — WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Rolex 24 at Daytona, at Daytona, Fla. 11 p.m. FS1 — WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Rolex 24 at Daytona, at Daytona, Fla. BOXING 10:30 p.m. HBO — Lucas Matthysse vs. Tewa Kiram, for the vacant WBA World welterweight title; Jorge Linares vs. Mercito Gesta, for Linares’ WBA World lightweight title, at Inglewood, Calif. COLLEGE BASKETBALL Noon CBS — NC State at North Carolina CBSSN — Akron at Ball St. ESPN — Baylor at Florida ESPN2 — Texas Tech at South Carolina NBCSN — Duquesne at Rhode Island 2 p.m. CBS — Virginia at Duke CBSSN — VCU at George Mason ESPN2 — Mississippi at Texas ESPNU — Georgia at Kansas St. NBCSN — UMass at Fordham 2:15 p.m. ESPN — Oklahoma at Alabama 2:30 p.m. FS1 — St. John’s at Butler 4 p.m. BTN — Rutgers at Penn St. CBSSN — Dayton at Saint Louis ESPN2 — TCU at Vanderbilt ESPNU — Tennessee at Iowa St. 4:30 p.m. ESPN — Texas A&M at Kansas 5:30 p.m. FOX — Utah at Arizona 6 p.m. CBSSN — Cincinnati at Memphis ESPN2 — Oklahoma St. at Arkansas ESPNU — S. Illinois at Missouri St. SEC — LSU at Auburn 7 p.m. ESPN — Kentucky at West Virginia 8 p.m. BTN — Iowa at Nebraska CBSSN — Georgetown at Creighton ESPN2 — Virginia Tech at Notre Dame ESPNU — Colorado at Arizona St. 8:30 p.m. SEC — Missouri at Mississippi St. 10 p.m. CBSSN — San Diego St. at UNLV ESPN2 — Valparaiso at Illinois St. ESPNU — Boise St. at Air Force COLLEGE FOOTBALL 2:30 p.m. NFL — Senior Bowl, North vs. South, at Mobile, Ala. EXTREME SPORTS 1 p.m. ABC — X Games Aspen, at Aspen, Colo. 9 p.m. ESPN — X Games Aspen, at Aspen, Colo. GOLF 10 a.m. GOLF — European PGA Tour, Omega Dubai Desert Classic, third round, at Dubai, United Arab Emirates 2 p.m. GOLF — PGA Tour, Farmers Insurance Open, third round, at San Diego 3:30 p.m. GOLF — LPGA Tour, Pure Silk-Bahamas Classic, third round, at Paradise Island, Bahamas 4 p.m. CBS — PGA Tour, Farmers Insurance Open, third round, at San Diego 3:30 a.m. (Sunday) GOLF — European PGA Tour, Omega Dubai Desert Classic, final round, at Dubai, United Arab Emirates MIXED MARTIAL ARTS 5 p.m. FS1 — UFC Fight Night, prelims, at Charlotte, N.C. 8 p.m. FOX — UFC Fight Night, Ronaldo Souza vs. Derek Brunson, at Charlotte, N.C. NBA 8:30 p.m. ABC — Boston at Golden State NHL 7:30 p.m. NBCSN — NHL All-Stars Skills Competition, at Tampa, Fla. SOCCER 7:30 a.m. FS1 — FA Cup, Fourth round, teams TBA 10 a.m. FS1 — FA Cup, Fourth round, teams TBA FS2 — FA Cup, Fourth round, teams TBA Noon FS1 — FA Cup, Fourth round, teams TBA 12:30 p.m. FS2 — Bundesliga, teams TBA 2:30 p.m. FS2 — FA Cup, Fourth round, teams TBA TENNIS 3:30 a.m. (Sunday) ESPN — Australian Open, Men’s championship, at Melbourne, Australia WOMEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL Noon ESPNU — Michigan St. at Ohio St. 1 p.m. BTN — Rutgers at Indiana It took just over an hour for Roger Federer to fix one anomalous statistic in his extraordinary career.
Defending champion Federer, who was leading Hyeon Chung 6-1, 5-2 when the Korean retired in the second set of their Australian Open semifinal on Friday night, 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.
After 1 hour and 2 minutes under the closed roof on Rod Laver Arena, he’s on par, 7-7 (but still well below his marks at the other majors: 11-1 at Wimbledon, 7-3 at the U.S. Open, and 5-2 at Roland Garros).
It wasn’t how Federer expected to advance.
“You do take the faster matches whenever you can because there’s enough wear and tear on the body,” he said. “The thought process is not like ‘What would have been better?’
“That’s why this one feels bittersweet. I’m incredibly happy to be in the finals, but not like this.”
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.”
Federer knows the feeling. He also sensed something wrong with Chung’s movement.
“I’ve played with blisters in the past a lot, and it hurts a lot. And at one point, it’s just too much and you can’t take it anymore — you can’t go on,” he said. “He’s played such a wonderful tournament, so credit to him for playing so hard again today.”
Federer’s conversion rate for finals in Australia is much better — the only time he lost a championship match was in 2009 against Rafael Nadal.
So he’s well poised for Sunday’s match against No. 6-seeded Marin Cilic. Cilic has had an extra day of rest but Federer was hardly taxed on Friday night, and occupied for only an hour.
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, including a quarterfinal win over an injured Nadal.
Even if Chung had been fit, he was trying to reach his first ATP final against a player who has won 95 titles, 19 of them Grand Slams.
Chung 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 in the third round and six-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic in the fourth.
But it took a toll. He needed a pain-killing injection before the match, and a medical timeout to retape his left foot after going down a break in the second set. He played only two