Roger keeps rolling

THE other seeds may have fallen by the wayside but not Roger Federer. The oldest man left in the draw is through to his 43rd Grand Slam semi-final and he has done it without dropping a set.

Slightly grumpy and tense at the start, he eventually steamrollered his way over Tomas Berdych to win 7-6, 6-3, 6-4 and record his 20th victory over the Czech.

Now Federer, 36, plays Chung Hyeon, 21, the first South Korean to reach a Grand Slam semi-final, after he followed up his win over Novak Djokovic by beating Tennys Sandgren 6-4, 7-6, 6-3. “I’m very excited to play Chung,” said Federer, above. “He played an incredible match against Novak. To beat him here is one of the tough things to do in our sport.”

Sandgren has become more famous for his interest in ultra-right wing politics than his tennis this week. Before the match, he deleted posts from the past 18 months on his Twitter account and afterwards went on a tirade against the press.

“You dehumanise with pen and paper and turn neighbour against neighbour,” said the American, reading from a pre-prepared statement.

“In so doing, you may actually find you’re hastening the hell you wish to avoid, the hell we all wish to avoid.”

Angelique Kerber, the 2016 champion, beat Madison Keys 6-1, 6-2 and now plays world No1 Simona Halep for a place in the final. Halep beat Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 6-2.