Roger Federer Reaches 14th Australian Open Semifinal
(January 24, 2018) Roger Federer defeated 19th seed Tomas Berdych 7-6 (1), 6-3, 6-4 to reach his 14th semifinal at the Australian Open, 43rd career major final four. The world No. 2 has not dropped set during the tournament.
Berdych leapt out to a 3-0 lead in the first set and served for the set and had set points.
“It was a good start,” said Berdych. “I had a good chances, a couple set points. Then, you know, I think he just get more confident after he saved the first set. Then it was very difficult with him again. After having been basically a whole set down, it gives you a lot of boost. Especially with him, I think it was just the deciding thing.
So, I mean, everything is ‘if’. But winning a first set would be completely different story.
“I hung around, got a bit lucky, a bit angry, a frustrated, maybe at the umpire, but I actually thought the call was good anyway,” Federer said during an on-court interview after the match. “I was just frustrated and a bit antsy. I’m happy I got out of that first set. It ended up being key to the match. Tomas was great.”
The defending champion and 19-time major champion became the oldest man to reach the semis in Melbourne since Ken Rosewall did it in 1977 at age 42 and the oldest man to reach the final four at any major tournament since Jimmy Connors did it the 1991 U.S. Open at age 39.
The Swiss is now 20-6 against the Czech.
Federer faces South Korea’s Hyeon Chung for a place in the final.
“I’ve never played Chung or (Kyle) Edmund so it’s great to see new names on the scene,” said Federer. “We need it, moving forward. The way both of them made it to the semis is highly impressive. The Chung-Djokovic match was the match I watched the most. Chung is very talented. He’s clearly got nothing to lose. I will tell myself the same, and we’ll see what happens.”
“I think it’s an interesting match for me,” Federer added. “I’ll definitely have to look into how I need to play against him because he has some great qualities, especially defensively, like Novak has.
“Right now I couldn’t tell you how I need to play him. One thing I know is I’m going to be playing aggressive. I don’t know how I’m going to do that exactly yet.”
Related article:
Hyeon Chung Continues Run into the Australian Open Semis with Win Over Tennys Sandgren
