Since Nishikori’s famous win over Djokovic at the 2014 US Open, the Japanese ace had suffered four comprehensive defeats at the hands of the world number one, taking just one set in those four matches.
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The American has now beaten the Russian in 18 consecutive matches dating back to 2004.
Fourth seed Radwanska earlier blasted into her fifth career Grand Slam semi-final with a 6-1 6-3 mauling of Carla Suarez.
Williams has won every semifinal she’s contested at Melbourne Park, and gone on to win the title each time.
Swiss tennis great Roger Federer has advanced to his 12th Australian Open semi-final with an efficient victory over Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych.
He will meet the victor of today’s second quarter-final between defending champion Novak Djokovic and No 7 seed Kei Nishikori.
Something daunting in her path to the title, though, is a semifinal against either six-time Australian Open champion Serena Williams or five-time major victor Maria Sharapova, who won the title at Melbourne Park in 2008 and has reached three other finals. But it quickly dissipated as Djokovic, hungry to close without any complications, amped up his game to match Nishikori’s surge.
“Not only that, I just have so many friends here; I have so many things that I can do”.
At the end of a tight first set, he dominated the tie-break to gain an advantage and broke serve five times as he eased to victory from there.
Over the course of his celebrated career, Roger Federer has acquired wisdom on the tennis courts that translates to life lessons which he hopes his children can learn from.
Djokovic finished with 22 winners against 27 unforced errors and he converted 6 of his 11 break point opportunities. “But when I lost the [sixth] game with my serve, everything started changing”, said the 26-year-old.
“Any round feels like finals because of the fact that we are, you know, big rivals, we played so many times against each other”, Djokovic commented on the prospect of playing Federer.
In a battle of two players with some the best backhands in the business, Djokovic was bidding to an extend his incredible grand slam winning streak to 19 matches.
Djokovic has caused his share of pain for Federer since overtaking him in the rankings.
Djokovic came into the match with question marks about his form after a scrappy fourth round performance against Gilles Simon, in which he came through in five sets.
He came up with the big plays while facing break points in the first two sets, and only dropped serve in two exchanges of breaks in the third.
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Djokovic, who benefitted from 54 unforced errors and a general lack of commitment in the rallies from Nishikori, never really had to dial in his best tennis. “In important moments I stayed composed”. I enjoy playing it, you’ve got to be in the right frame of mind, you’ve got to be confident up there.
