{"id":13559,"date":"2020-01-31T10:39:05","date_gmt":"2020-01-31T07:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/?p=13559"},"modified":"2020-01-31T10:39:07","modified_gmt":"2020-01-31T07:39:07","slug":"novak-djokovic-beats-roger-federer-to-reach-australian-open-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/2020\/01\/31\/novak-djokovic-beats-roger-federer-to-reach-australian-open-final\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic beats Roger Federer to reach Australian Open final"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Novak Djokovic moved a step closer to retaining the Australian Open title with a straight-set semi-final win over injury-hit rival Roger Federer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serbia’s Djokovic was 4-1 and 40-0 down in the opening set before recovering to win the tie-break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That laid the platform for the 32-year-old second seed to go on and win 7-6 (7-1) 6-4 6-3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Djokovic, aiming for a 17th Grand Slam title, will face Dominic Thiem or Alexander Zverev in Sunday’s final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The match could have definitely gone a different way if he had used those break points [in the sixth game],” Djokovic said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He started well – I was nervous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Respect to Roger for coming out tonight. He was obviously hurt and wasn’t close to his best in terms of movement.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victory would mean a record-extending eighth Australian Open triumph for Djokovic, who has lost just three matches at Melbourne Park in the past 10 tournaments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would also move him within three of 38-year-old’s Federer’s all-time record of 20 men’s Grand Slam singles titles and within two of Spain’s Rafael Nadal, who lost to Thiem in Wednesday’s quarter-final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

d break points in the second and sixth games, Djokovic took his first chance in the 10th, scampering to pick up a drop-shot and scoop away sharply cross-court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That silenced many in the 15,000 crowd on Rod Laver Arena who were supporting Federer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But not the noisy bunch of Serbs sat behind his player box, to where he shot a steely side-glance as he clenched a fist in celebration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From that point it was difficult to envisage a comeback for Federer, who somehow came through five-set matches against third-round opponent John Millman and then Sandgren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Djokovic picked his moment to break in the third set, finishing off a precise point with a wonderful forehand winner that kissed the sideline for a 4-2 lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Federer said after beating Sandgren he would always believe in miracles until defeat was confirmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time it would truly have been a miraculous escape against someone of Djokovic’s class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Federer valiantly levelled at 30-30 as Djokovic tried to serve out the match, only for the Serb to refocus and seal victory in two hours 18 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Federer starts well but momentum swings<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Roger
Federer has now lost eight Australian Open semi-finals<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Concerns had been voiced by some at Melbourne Park that Federer might pull out in the hours leading up to the match. They proved unfounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead he came out firing in an extraordinary start in which his fitness issues did not stop him building up a lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although he had to stave off two break points in the opening game, he eventually came through a six-minute hold before the pair exchanged three successive breaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Federer turned the set 4-1 in his favour with supreme serving and shot-making, leaving the stunned crowd murmuring in excitement at what they had just seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It was not exactly the right mindset for me at the start – I was looking at how he was moving rather than executing my shots,” Djokovic said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Djokovic faced three more break points to go 5-1 down but hung on to leave Federer still needing two more games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 61-second hold to love – ace, backhand-volley winner, ace, service winner – put him within one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, as the aces and winners started to dry up, momentum swung back as Djokovic won the next three games as a tie-break beckoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pair had won 44 points each going into the set decider, despite Federer hitting 25 winners to Djokovic’s six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Djokovic upped the ante in the breaker, blasting an ace past Federer for a 5-1 lead at the changeover and two more winners seeing him through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That proved pivotal in the context of the match and ultimately terminal to Federer’s chances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I managed to dig my way through and it was very important to win that first set,” Djokovic said. “Then mentally I could relax and swing through the ball a bit more.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Race to be the ‘GOAT’ continues<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Djokovic’s victory over Federer in last year’s historic Wimbledon final took him closer to the Swiss’ Grand Slam tally than he has ever been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the Serb, who has won six of the past nine tournaments in Melbourne, is aiming to further reduce the gap on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost six years younger than Federer, Djokovic could add plenty more, barring a loss of form or fitness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His pursuit of Federer and Nadal is made more remarkable by the fact he won his first major in 2008 – when Federer had claimed 13 and Nadal five – and only added a second three years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nadal, however, is another major obstacle for Djokovic – and also a concern for Federer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic moved a step closer to retaining the Australian Open title with a straight-set semi-final win over injury-hit rival Roger Federer. Serbia’s Djokovic was 4-1 and 40-0 down in the opening set before recovering to win the tie-break. That laid the platform for the 32-year-old second seed to go on and win 7-6 (7-1) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27983,"featured_media":13561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_paywall_metabox":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27983"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13559"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13562,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13559\/revisions\/13562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}