Tennis News

After nearly a fortnight of enjoyable matches, the Australian Open will kick into high gear on Friday evening with the latest chapter in the riveting rivalry between top seed Novak Djokovic and defending champion Stan Wawrinka. The two have played some of the best ATP World Tour matches over the past three years, and will now play yet another match in Melbourne – their third consecutive one at this event. While Djokovic leads the head-to-head series 16-3, Wawrinka won their last meeting on this surface and will be determined to replicate that occasion this time around as well.

Watch the semi-final match here: Djokovic v Wawrinka Live Stream

Top seed Novak Djokovic reached the final four in Melbourne with a simple straight sets victory Milos Raonic, which ended with a 7-6(5), 6-4, 6-2 scoreline. The Serb faced little resistance in the match-up after the first set and cruised into the final four with little difficulty. He also withstood 15 aces from the Canadian, hit 33 winners and won 89% of his first service points to sets up the latest encounter in the riveting rivalry between himself and Stan Wawrinka.

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“I take a lot of confidence [into the match],” said Djokovic. “I try to carry that in every next match, next challenge. Obviously I’m going to play Stan, who is the defending champion here. We played five-set matches at the 2013 and ’14 Australian Opens. I’m going to be ready for a fight. But knowing that I have raised the level of performance tonight, and probably playing the best match of the tournament so far is affecting my confidence in a positive way. Hopefully I can carry that into next one.”

Wawrinka, however, believes he is playing even better tennis than last year. The Swiss No. 2 reached the semi-final with a straight sets win against Kei Nishikori and is growing in confidence with each passing hour. He struck 46 winners, 20 aces, and won 86% of his first service points to close out the match 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(6).

“I know that now I have a Grand Slam back at home,” said the Lausanne native. “I have the Grand Slam trophy. I won the Davis Cup also. I have the confidence from that. I know I can make it. I trust my game. I trust myself on the court, even when we start to play semi-finals or finals in Grand Slams.”

This is the 19th time that Djokovic and Wawrinka will cross paths on the professional tour, with the Serbian star leading the series with a convincing 16-3 record. However, it was only over the past couple of years that Wawrinka because competitive against Djokovic, and they have since produced some sublime tennis together. Wawrinka won their last meeting at the Australian Open, a quarter-final match that gave him the confidence to go forth and win the title. This time around, he will need to play even better tennis to eliminate the motivated Djokovic and set up a final against Andy Murray.

Prediction: Novak Djokovic in Five Sets

For the fourth time in his professional career, British No. 1 Andy Murray will contest the final of the Australian Open – one of the two remaining Grand Slam events that he is yet to win.

Murray, who is contesting his first Major final since winning the Wimbledon Championships in 2013, reached that stage of the event with a four-set victory over the resurgent Tomas Berdych. The Briton rallied from a set down to defeat his Czech adversary 6-7(6), 6-0, 6-3, 7-5.

“I played very, very well tonight,” said Murray. “I’m very happy with the way that I played the match. To be in the final four times here, I mean, because I’m surrounded by guys like Roger, Novak and Rafa, doesn’t look like much, but that doesn’t happen that often. So I’m very proud of that.”

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The 27-year-old Murray is through to his eighth Grand Slam final and is searching for his third Major championship, after winning the US Open in 2012, and the historic Wimbledon title the following year.

Berdych, who was coming off an upset thrashing of Rafael Nadal in the quarter-final – a win that snapped a 17-match losing streak to the Spaniard – was unable to extend his head-to-head lead over Murray.

“I’m very disappointed to lose this match,” said Berdych. “It was a big match. I just need to come back stronger and get myself better for it, and that’s it. What was the difference? I had one bad set for the second set, and that’s it. I was just trying to get my chances, trying to fight for it, but as I said, it was not enough and I’m very disappointed with it.”

Murray will now await the winner between Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka, which takes place on Friday night on Rod Laver Arena.

During the WTA semi-finals on Thursday afternoon in Melbourne, Lleyton Hewitt announced that he would officially retire following the 2016 Australian Open.

The 33-year-old plans to play his 20th Grand Slam appearance in Melbourne, and retire afterwards no matter the result.

“I plan to play the Aussie Open next year and most likely finish then,” he said. “Personally, I’ll be looking towards the grass court season and most likely finishing here in Melbourne, which for me would obviously be special to play 20 Australian Opens.”

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The two-time Grand Slam champion explained that his decision has nothing to do with his physical condition, as that is the only reason he remains active on the tour.

“My body’s fine,” he said with confidence. “I think I trained harder probably than anyone in the off-season. I had probably the longest pre-season ever, probably three months. The body feels great at the moment. That’s the only reason why I want to keep playing.

Once Hewitt’s announcement was complete, Pat Rafter took to the stage to reveal that he was stepping down from his position as Davis Cup captain. Wally Masur is expected to take over as interim captain before offering the role to Hewitt when he is eventually ready.

“Lleyton has an undeniable link with Davis Cup, and he will be captain one day,” Masur said. “It’s not in the model in Australian tennis to have a playing captain as such. I spoke to Lleyton a few days ago about it, and we’ve come to the arrangement that he’s still a player, he still has a career to flesh out and see where that ends. Until that happens, I’ll be captain.”

Hewitt was obviously excited about this prospect

“I’m excited about the prospect obviously of still being able to play Davis Cup. I’ve been waiting a while for these young guys to come and for us to have an opportunity of going deep.”

Following an entertaining, albeit one-sided, semi-final stage, the 2015 Australian Open Final is officially set, as the top two seeds will meet in the tournament final to determine who will lift the season-opening Grand Slam title.

The first match of the day saw Maria Sharapova oust Simona Halep-vanquisher Ekaterina Makarova with relative ease, 6-3, 6-2. Sharapova was in total command of the match from the get-go, as she stormed to a 3-0 lead to open the match, and even held a 4-0 lead in the second set.

Apart from a second round scare, Sharapova eased into her 10th Grand Slam final with little difficulty.

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“It’s really special,” Sharapova said in her post-match interview. “You work really hard for these two weeks and fight through some tough matches, some tough situations, and you come from behind in some of them – for me really behind in one of them, saving two match points in the second round.”

The second semi-final saw a more entertaining match-up, where both the winner and the loser looked good by the time they came to exit the court. World No. 1 Serena Williams managed to weather the storm from Madison Keys and defeated the surging youngster in straight sets, but it was not without its difficult moments.

Keys saved eight match points before falling on the ninth attempt from Williams. It was a remarkable display of grit and determination from a player who had most of her leg bandaged.

“I was a little frustrated at the end – I had so many match points and just couldn’t close it out, and that doesn’t usually happen,” Williams said. “But in retrospect, she was playing very well. She served so well. I’m a really big fan of hers. She’s so awesome, she’s so positive, just a great player.”

Williams and Sharapova will rekindle their rivalry on Saturday evening in Melbourne. Williams is looking to become the only woman alongside Steffi Graf to win 19 Grand Slams, while Sharapova is after her sixth overall.