The Serb has usurped his fiercest rival at the top of men’s tennis but Federer, now 34, has enjoyed a renaissance, producing some of his best form in recent months and reaching two grand slam finals previous year.
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Great and enduring rivalries have been the motor for men’s tennis in the age of the Big Four: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, the Ringo Starr of this supergroup. Young Myla and Charlene have joined their mother, Mirka, in Federer’s box at matches, their heads buried in books, as their famous dad has expertly navigated his way into the second week of his 36th consecutive Grand Slam – one of his many records. But despite dropping a set more than the Swiss, Djokovic has has never lost in the semi-finals of the tournament.
Another ominous fact facing the Pole is that every time defending champion Williams has got past the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park, she has gone on to win the tournament.
Dismissing the idea that this might be her 16th and final appearance at the year’s first Grand Slam event “Hopefully not, unless you know something I don’t”, she said Williams spoke of a different approach to her tennis this year.
After winning an intense first set, Williams had medical treatment – later saying it was just for an upset stomach.
“I sort of had a good start”.
“I told them after all these years, I still go out and train, trying to improve”, Federer said.
Laver went on to win the French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open in 1969, giving him his second Grand Slam.
She says, “Right now I have nothing to lose”.
Wins, though still short of perfection, over Grigor Dimitrov and Tomas Berdych have Federer primed for a bid to atone for last year’s failures in the finals of Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
“I’m playing good tennis, fun tennis for me anyway”, Federer said. It’s nice now that in the last three Slams that I’ve been as consistent as I’ve been.
While Djokovic experienced a hiccup in an error-laden five-set fourth-round clash with Gilles Simon, Federer has looked supreme in making it through to the last four at this year’s Australian Open, dropping just one set along the way.
“If she withdraws from playing with Netherlands and we lose the match, she will not play at the Olympics”, Russian tennis federation boss Shamil Tarpishchev said about the upcoming Fed Cup, according to Agence France-Presse, citing comments in Russian to news agency TASS.
“She played quite explosive”, Sharapova said. I think what we will see is Novak having just enough variety on his serve (Berdych’s serve was way too predictable) – and this variety will make Roger chip his returns and allow Novak to be able to dictate play and control the baseline. “That’s why I think it got brought up in many ways”. Williams beat Radwanska in the 2012 Wimbledon final.
“When I play her, I know automatically I have to step up my game”, said Williams, a 21-time major victor.
Sharapova broke to open the match but Williams held in the third game and broke back to level at 2-2.
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“Roger always makes you play your best. I would like to thank David for the many things that he taught me both on and off the court, and I wish him all the very best for the future”. But Murray will try to stop him, the four-time runner-up here hoping to make the final and finally come across the finish line in a Slam where he has been beaten on the final lap time and time again.
