Novak Djokovic vs. Roger Federer No. 50 had no business happening at this Australian Open. Federer, himself, would be the first to admit that.
But it’s happening nonetheless, as the Swiss saved seven match points against Tennys Sandgren in the quarterfinals on Tuesday. That was preceded two rounds earlier by a comeback from 8-4 down in a final-set tiebreaker against John Millman.
Federer’s reward is an another installment of one of tennis’ all-time great rivalries. Heading into Thursday night’s semifinal collision, Djokovic holds a slight 26-23 edge over Federer in the head-to-head series. The Serb, who famously triumphed 7-6(5), 1-6, 7-6(4), 4-6, 13-12(3) in the 2019 Wimbledon title match, has won three of their previous four Australian Open encounters. They last met in Melbourne during 2016 semifinal action, with Djokovic getting the job done 6-1, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.
The current world No. 2 is an even more overwhelming favorite now. After rolling to a seventh title Down Under last season, Djokovic is through to another semifinal following defeats of Jan-Lennard Struff, Tatsuma Ito, Yoshihito Nishioka, Diego Schwartzman, and Milos Raonic. Only Struff managed to steal a set in the opening round.
But the potential for a lopsided affair on Thursday has even more to do with Federer than it does with Djokovic. Part of the reason for the 38-year-old’s flirtation with disaster is an apparent groin problem. Although nothing aside from poor play plagued Federer against Millman, on Tuesday he was far less than 100 percent throughout the latter stages of his 6-3, 2-6, 2-6, 7-6(10), 6-3 miracle at Sandgren’s expense.
“I don’t know if you can call it an injury,” the 20-time Grand Slam champion noted. “It’s just pain and problems. I need to figure it out. But…semifinals… you have an extra day, adrenaline, there’s a lot of things. Two good nights of sleep, doctors, physios….
“Hopefully we’ll find out that it’s actually nothing bad, that it was just the groin that went really tight from playing a lot, who knows what, from nerves. I don’t know. I’m hopeful.”
Even at 100 percent, though, would there be any hope against Djokovic? This is a guy who is 73-8 lifetime at Melbourne Park and utterly destroyed Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 in last year’s final.
“I know that whenever we get a chance to play each other, we understand it takes a big effort and it’s required from us to come up with the best game in order to win against each other,” Djokovic said of Federer. “(At) Wimbledon last year, he had two match points–he was one shot away from winning that match…. He loves to play these kind of matches, big rivalries, semis, finals of Grand Slams.
“But I’ve been feeling well on the court. (At) the end of the day, this is my favorite court–the court where I (have) had the most success in my career.”
All signs point to more success on Thursday.
Pick: Djokovic in 3
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