Roger Federer isn’t the same player he was a few years ago; age does that to an athlete. However, he’s still good enough to extend his semifinal streak at the Australian Open semifinal, beating Andy Murray 6-3, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3, to make it for an 11th consecutive time into the final four at Melbourne, with Rafael Nadal waiting for another epic showdown.
No one really expected Murray to do this well in the tournament because of his surgery, but he managed to drop only one set on his way to the quarterfinal, before clashing with a red hot Roger Federer, who came into the match without dropping a single set in the tournament, including in a clean win over Tsonga that lasted less than two hours.
Things went well for him early on in the match against Murray for the first two sets, being a bit too fast and too accurate for the Brit who looked to be struggling with his movement at times. However, things changed in the third set, as Federer missed two match points with a 5-4 lead, eventually succumbing to Murray in a tiebreak 8-6, paving way for a few more games of fantastic tennis.
Murray struggled for every point and game he won while Federer cruised through his serving games most of the time. In the end, Murray’s serves couldn’t save him from losing to a better player on the day, while Federer proved that all those who doubted his ability to still be a factor in big tournaments against top players were a bit premature.
While the first semifinal will be between Stanislas Wawrinka playing against Tomas Berdych, most eyes will be set towards the second one with the number one seed, Rafael Nadal, playing as a huge favorite (although there is a hand injury he’s dealing with) against Roger Federer for the 33 time, holding a 22-10. It’ll be their third meeting at the Australian Open (2-0 Nadal), with the previous one coming in the 2012 semifinal; Nadal won in five sets.