By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday January 30, 2020
Novak Djokovic overcame some early struggles and knocked off Roger Federer in straight sets to reach the Aussie Open final.
Photo Source: Mark Peterson/Corleve
Novak Djokovic remained perfect in Australian Open semifinals with a 7-6(1) 6-4 6-3 takedown of Roger Federer on Thursday in Melbourne. After a shaky start the Serb cruised past an ailing Federer to book his 26th major final and his eighth at the Australian Open.
Djokovic or Federer has claimed 13 of the last 15 Australian Open titles, but it is the Serb that has taken control of his rivalry with Federer, particularly at the Slams, where he has now won his las six meetings with the Swiss.
Djokovic improved to 27-23 lifetime against Federer and 11-6 at the majors overall, but he had to reverse course after a dismal start to do it.
Djokovic was serving at 1-4 0-40 in the opening set, but avoided going down a double break and eventually leveled the set before claiming a dominant tiebreaker victory. He has now claimed his last six tiebreakers against Federer and, remarkably, 14 of his last 15 tiebreakers overall.
Dropping that set was traumatic for Federer, especially given his compromised physical state due to the groin injury that he carried into the contest. Djokovic, eager to capitalize on the momentum he had gained from taking that opening set tiebreaker, cleaned up his game in the second and third set. After surrendering two breaks and facing seven break points in the opener, he didn’t face another break point the rest of the way.
"When I was on the court at the beginning, I was really paying too much attention on his movement, what he was really doing," Djokovic explained to reporters in a press conference after the match. "I wasn't in the right balance. I wasn't hitting the ball. I wasn't executing the shots the way I wanted it."
He broke in the tenth game of the second set to take a commanding two sets to zero ead and broke in the sixth game of the third set and never looked back.
After the match Djokovic gave credit to Federer for making a good show of things despite the fact that he was carrying the groin injury that he aggravated during his five-set quarterfinal with Tennys Sandgren.
"Respect to Roger for coming out tonight,” he said. “He was obviously hurt... He wasn't at his best and even close to his best in terms of movement and respect for coming out and trying his best all the way through."
Federer admitted that he wasn't feeling close to 100 percent and said that the injury caused him to believe he had almost zero chance to win.
"Today was horrible, to go through what I did," he said. "Nice entrance, nice sendoff, and in between is one to forget because you know you have a 3 percent chance to win. You know, got to go for it. You never know. But once you can see it coming, that it's not going to work anymore, it's tough."
Djokovic will have a chance to reclaim the ATP’s No.1 ranking if he can claim his eighth Australian Open title in Sunday’s final. The Serb awaits the winner of Friday’s semifinal between Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev.
More to follow…