Federer’s temper drives him forward

MELBOURNE, Australia — Roger Federer got cranky at the chair umpire for a technology flaw in his Australian Open quarterfinal match, using the rare emotional outburst as motivation.

It helped. The 36-yearold Federer beat longtime rival Tomas Berdych 7-6 (1), 6-3, 6-4 Wednesday and will next face a challenge from the next generation.

That will be against 21year-old Hyeon Chung, the first South Korean to reach a Grand Slam semifinal.

Federer had to overcome a shaky start, dropping his opening service game and uncharacteristically questioning chair umpire Fergus Murphy because of a technological fault. With Berdych serving for the first set in the ninth game, Federer had challenged a line call.

After a lengthy delay, Murphy called the control room and confirmed the replay graphic couldn’t be displayed on the stadium screen, and also that the original decision stood. When he added that Federer had no challenges remaining for the set, Federer approached the chair and the crowd cheers intensified.

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

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. But he let his guard down in the last game against Sandgren and needed six match points to finish it off.

“In last game, I think at 40-love ... if I win one more point, I make history in Korea. I have to think about the ceremony, something,” Chung said, explaining how he let his celebrations get slightly ahead of the result. “After deuce, break point. I was like, ‘No, nothing to do with ceremony. But just keep playing — keep focused.’ ”

The women’s semis were determined when top-ranked Simona Halep recovered from an early break to win 6-3, 6-2 over No. 6 Karolina Pliskova.