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Five-time Champion Novak Djokovic is on track to successfully defend his Australian Open title after beating Roger Federer 6-1, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in a hard-fought semi-final.
This will be the sixth time that Djokovic will feature in a men’s final at Melbourne Park.
Djoker’s Two Set Lead
To start the match, Djokovic cruised to a first set lead, taking it at 6-1 under floodlights at the Rod Laver Arena. He started by holding his opening service game to love and then broke Federer’s serve in the second game to take a 2-0 lead after four easy minutes. Not much resistance from Federer’s end as he closed it in22 minutes.
The second was not much different as Djokovic raced to 5-1 lead and soon bagged it at 6-2 in 32 minutes.
The Third Set
With Djokovic leading by two sets and serving at 2-3, Federer finally got his first break points of the match. The top-seeded Djokovic saved the first three break points he faced, but Federer converted on the fourth to take a 4-2 lead.
Federer had 18 winners in the set, to just eight for Djokovic and they helped as he won his first set of the semi-final 6-3.
Fourth and End
While the Federer loyalists hoped for a fifth set and both men kept the fans on the edge of their seats - taking it to 3-3 in the fourth, Djokovic broke the Federer serve in the eighth game.
From there, he just had to hold his serve and he did. Playing the last game out of the match to love as he closed the semi-final victory in two hours and 19 minutes. Djokovic winning the duo’s 45th meet 6-1, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 and taking a 23-22 head-to-head lead.
The world number one will next face the winner of tomorrow’s Andy Murray vs Milos Raonic semi-final.