Novak Djokovic once again mastered defending champion Roger Federer to reach the final of the Australian Open yesterday.
The resurgent Serbian third seed wore down Federer 7-6 (7/3), 7-5, 6-4 in three hours to repeat his semi-final win over the Swiss great in the 2008 Australian Open on the way to winning his lone Grand Slam title.
Djokovic will now play the winner of today’s semi-final between British fifth seed Andy Murray and Spain’s seventh seed David Ferrer in Sunday’s title match.
Photo: AFP
It will be the first Grand Slam without Rafael Nadal or Federer since the 2008 Australian final.
With world No. 1 Nadal out of the tournament amid doubts over his fitness and now Federer beaten, Djokovic’s triumph may have signaled a changing of the guard at the top of men’s tennis.
“He puts a lot of pressure on you, so I tried to stay to the last moment and really it was one of the best matches I’ve played in a while,” Djokovic said. “I had to take my chances, in the second set I was a break up and in 20 minutes I was 5-2 down, so if I had lost that set God knows which direction the match would go, but I am just happy to overcome the tough moments to play my best tennis.”
It was Djokovic’s third win over Federer in a Grand Slam semi-final and he now leads the Swiss great 3-2 in their encounters at the majors.
The world No. 3 repeated his classic straight-sets win over Federer in the semi-finals in Melbourne three years ago, when he went on to beat Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final for his maiden Grand Slam title.
He also defeated Federer in the semi-finals of last year’s US Open after saving two match points. Federer still leads 13-7 in their overall meetings.
Federer was playing in his eighth straight Australian semi-final and his 27th Slam semi-final.
Djokovic continued his terrific form at the tournament and has dropped just one set leading into Sunday’s final.
Djokovic opened shakily with two double faults before holding, as Federer looked stronger on serve as the first set went into a tiebreaker.
However, Federer played a poor tiebreak with a couple of backhand misses and Djokovic took the set on the first of his four set points in 57 minutes.
The Serb was fired up by his early advantage and broke Federer in the third game of the second set when a Federer backhand was long.
That stung the world No. 2 and he claimed a double service break to go up 5-2, but Djokovic hit back winning the next five games to go two sets up after Federer began missing his forehand.
Djokovic fought for 13 minutes and five deuces to cling to his service at the start of the third set as Federer desperately looked for a way back into the contest.
Federer became more flustered under the continual assault from Djokovic and was broken in the third game to give the third seed control of the deciding set, as he wore down the Swiss champion.
Fighting Federer broke back to 4-4, but the Swiss again gave up serve with more volley errors to leave Djokovic to serve out for the match on his third match point.
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