Defending champion Roger Federer swept into a record 14th Australian Open semi-final with a commanding straight sets win over long-time rival Tomas Berdych on Wednesday. The second seed cruised to a 7-6 (1), 6-3, 6-4 win in 2hr 14min on Rod Laver Arena and will face unseeded South Korean Chung Hyeon on Friday for a place in the final.
The 19-time Grand Slam champion, who hasn’t lost in five matches against Berdych in Melbourne, will play in his 43rd Grand Slam semi-final, a record for the post-1968 Open Era.
The Swiss legend has yet to face Chung, who has got past six-time champion Novak Djokovic and world No.4 Alexander Zverev to get to the last four. Federer’s latest victory was his 92nd in 105 matches in Melbourne to make the Australian Open his most successful Grand Slam in terms of matches won.
“I’m happy I got out of the first set. It ended up being the key of the match,” he said. “I just tried to hang around, tried to play a bit more aggressive, get some rhythm going, because Tomas found that early. That’s why I was under pressure. It was definitely very close, the turning point, and it ended up being for the entire match. I played a great breaker. Got off to a good start there. But coming back from 5-2 in the first set, it was clearly big tonight.”
Federer has now won 14 out of 14 quarter-finals in Melbourne and has yet to drop a set in this year’s tournament.
Looking ahead to his semi-final opponent Chung, Federer said: “He’s incredibly impressive in his movement, he reminds me a lot of Novak the way he is able to slide forehand and backhand and use the hardcourt as a claycourt. He gets balls back and stays aggressive in defence, so I’m really excited to be playing him, he’s got nothing to lose, I will tell myself the same and we’ll see what happens.”
Federer is coming off an extraordinary 2017, when he won a fifth Australian Open title and a record eighth at Wimbledon, after returning from an injury lay-off. The 36-year-old is bidding to win his 20th Grand Slam title and is the oldest man to reach the semi-finals in Australia since Ken Rosewall (42 years) in 1977.
