Federer and Djokovic advance to semifinals
MELBOURNE, Australia — Defending champion Novak Djokovic on Tuesday overcame the powerful serve of Canada’s Milos Raonic, defeating him 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7-1), to set up an Australian Open semifinal clash with Roger Federer, their 50th career matchup.
Earlier, Federer pulled off the second great escape of his Melbourne campaign by saving seven match points to win 6-3, 2-6, 2-6, 76 (10-8), 6-3 against unseeded Tennys Sandgren en route to a record 15th semifinal appearance in the slam.
Australian world No. 1 Ash Barty survived a tough challenge herself, defeating two-time Grand Slam champion Petra Kvitova 7-6 (8-6), 6-2 to reach her first home major semifinal, where she will face 14th-seeded American Sofia Kenin.
Kenin overcame the mixed game of Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur with a consistent match, winning 6-4, 6-4 to reach her first career Grand Slam semifinal.
After Federer took the first set with relative ease, world No. 100 Sandgren broke the Swiss champion’s serve on 1-0 in the second and again on 5-4 thanks unforced errors by the 38-year-old.
Sandgren then grabbed the third set in almost identical fashion.
In the fourth, the American got three match points on Federer’s serve on 5-4, but failed to convert, while Federer missed his lone chance at a break, eventually winning the tiebreaker to force a decider after facing four more match points.
Federer finally managed to break the American’s serve for a second time on 3-2 in the decider, eventually closing out the match in three hours and 31 minutes.
“You gotta get lucky sometimes, I’ll tell you that,” Federer said following the win. “With these lucky escapes all of a sudden you might play without expectations anymore, because you know you should actually already be skiing in Switzerland.”
Djokovic had smoother sailing later at Rod Laver, after failing to convert five chances at a break in the first nine games of the opener, he eventually came through after setting his fourth set point with an outstanding return.
Raonic hit an unforced error to end an 18-shot rally and the first set in 55 minutes.
Djokovic was much quicker to convert opportunities in the second, taking the lead at the third time of asking to go up 3-1 and never looking back.
Djokovic again missed four chances to break on 5-5 in the
third set — two games after having a medical timeout to deal with a contact lenses issue — but eventually won the tiebreaker to close the match in two hours and 49 minutes.
To await him in his eighth semi at Melbourne Park will be Federer, whom he has played against 49 times so far and defeated 26.
“The matchups against Roger and Rafa (Nadal) have made me the player I am today, so I am grateful that I’ve had so many great matches against those guys — and I hope I get to at least one match point in a few days,” Djokovic said on being asked about Federer’s comeback.
“It was quite amazing, I mean, what he has done on the court today, and it’s not the first time that he has done that in his career. That’s why he is who he is. Let the better player win.”
Earlier at Rod Laver, Barty pulled off a gutsy performance in the opener, saving eight of nine break points — while converting one of three — and then a set point in the tiebreaker to win the first set against 2019 runner-up Kvitova by the smallest of margins.
In a pretty flat opening game in the second set, Kvitova dropped her serve to give Barty a set and a break lead. Barty then put her foot on the accelerator, with a quick hold and another winning assault on Kvitova’s serve for a double break.
The two-time Wimbledon champion took one break back, but then dropped her serve with a double-fault, allowing Barty to serve the match out and reach her second career semifinal at a slam, her first one coming in 2019 at the French Open when she went on to win the title.