Nobody would ever have expected a Fedal grand slam final in 2017 but it is a very distinct possibility after Roger Federer…
Watch highlights as Roger Federer beats fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka in five sets to reach the Australian Open final.
| Australian Open 2017 |
|---|
| Venue: Melbourne Park, Melbourne Dates: 16-29 Jan |
| Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra; live text on selected matches on the BBC Sport website; TV highlights on BBC Two and online. |
Rafael Nadal is hoping to meet old rival Roger Federer in the Australian Open final by beating in-form Grigor Dimitrov in their semi-final on Friday.
Spaniard Nadal, 30, has not reached a major final since winning his 14th Grand Slam at the 2014 French Open.
Federer, 35, is going for a record 18th major title after an epic semi-final win over fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka.
“I have to play my best because Grigor is playing with high confidence,” said ninth seed Nadal.
The pair meet at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne about 08:30 GMT on Friday.
Nadal has been troubled by injuries in recent years, but reached his first Grand Slam semi-final since 2014 with a superb quarter-final victory over Canadian third seed Milos Raonic.
If Nadal beats 25-year-old Dimitrov then all four singles finalists will be aged over 30, as 35-year-old Serena Williams meets older sister Venus, 36, in the women’s final.
Dimitrov, who has never reached a Grand Slam final, is aiming to prevent Federer, Nadal and the Williams sisters contesting the two finals at a major for the first time since 2008 Wimbledon.
The Bulgarian 15th seed is playing some of the best tennis of his career having won the Brisbane International earlier this month and then carrying on his form in Melbourne.
He beat 11th seed David Goffin of Belgium in straight sets in the quarter-finals to record his 10th successive victory.
“I feel like I have all the tools to go further and my job isn’t over yet,” he said. “I’m looking forward to my match. I think I’m prepared.
“I’m ready to go the distance. I don’t shy away from that. I’m confident enough to say that as I feel good physically, and overall on the court.”
If Nadal wins his semi-final, he and Federer would contest their ninth Grand Slam final – and their first since the French Open in 2011, when the Spaniard won in four sets.
“Rafa has presented me with the biggest challenge in the game,” said Federer, who is seeded 17th after returning from a six-month lay-off to rest his left knee.
“I’m his number one fan. His game is tremendous. He’s an incredible competitor.
“I’m happy we had some epic battles over the years and of course it would be unreal to play here. I think both of us would never have thought we would be here playing in the final.”
Federer has a perfect record against Dimitrov, winning all five of their previous meetings.
“He has got a very complete game. He can mix it up really well. He’s very confident and you never want to play confident players, but it’s him or Rafa,” said Federer, who last won a Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 2012.
“It’s going to be tough either way.”
The winner will play Nadal or Dimitrov in Sunday’s final
Roger Federer will attempt to win his 18th Grand Slam championship against his old foe Rafael Nadal or Grigor Dimitrov on Sunday after a battling performance in the Australian Open semi-finals.
The 35-year-old Swiss superstar, who had returned to top-level tennis after a six-month injury lay-off, booked a spot in his 28th Grand Slam final with a 7-5, 6-3, 1-6, 4-6, 6-3 victory over his compatriot Stan Wawrinka, the 2014 titlist and fourth seed. Federer will now compete for his fifth crown in his sixth Australian Open final on Sunday night, when he will attempt to become the first No. 17 seed to win a major since Pete Sampras won the final professional match of his career at the 2002 US Open.
Federer, who is now 86-13 at the Australian Open, will take a 5-0 advantage over No. 15 seed Dimitrov into his 28th Grand Slam championship final (17-8 record). But he trails 14-time major winner and 2009 champion Nadal 11-23 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series.
Federer applied early pressure, forcing Wawrinka to recover from 0/40 on serve at 1-2 – Infosys ATP Scores & Stats indicates he did so on nine of 26 occasions in 2016. Although Federer came through his own test, from 15/40 in the next game, he did do a good job of keeping Wawrinka off-balance by varying the direction of his groundstrokes. Federer survived a break point at 5-5, 30/40 and was soon gifted two straight errors from Wawrinka to take the 50-minute opener.
In the second set, Wawrinka went into meltdown at 2-3 when two errors saw his serve get broken – as well as a racquet – to give Federer full control of their 22nd meeting. Although Wawrinka continued to battle, he left the court in tears at the end of the second set. The 31 year old would now need to come back from an 0-2 sets deficit for the seventh time in his career.
With strapping just below his right knee, following an off-court medical time-out, Wawrinka took his first tentative steps. Initially slow to move off his right leg, he grew in confidence and broke Federer’s serve with a forehand winner for a 3-1 advantage. Federer’s intensity dropped and two more breaks soon followed for Wawrinka and in a run of six games he led 1-0 in the fourth set.
Although Federer broke back immediately for 1-1, fast forward to 4-4 and he was in big trouble at 0/40. Federer saved two with well-direct serves, but terrific movement from Wawrinka at 30/40 enabled him to flick a forehand crosscourt winner to break. The crowd were left stunned, as the match went to a fifth and deciding set.
Wawrinka narrowly missed a forehand down the line at 1-1, 30/40, with Federer in a perilous position at the net. Wawrinka then recovered from 0/30 in the net game, before missing another break point at 2-2. When Wawrinka struck a mid-court backhand long at 2-3, 15/30, the match turned in Federer’s favour. Federer was not to be denied and will now play his 100th match at the Australian Open against Nadal or Dimitrov.
Federer, who is now 19-3 lifetime against Wawrinka – a winner in all of their hard-court meetings, hit 47 winners, including 11 aces. He also converted four of his nine break point opportunities for victory in three hours and four minutes. Wawrinka went 4/12 on break points, but went 56/86 on first serve points in comparison to 62/86 for Federer.
| Australian Open 2017 |
|---|
| Venue: Melbourne Park, Melbourne Dates: 16-29 Jan |
| Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra; live text on the BBC Sport website; TV highlights on BBC Two and online. |
Roger Federer beat fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka 7-5 6-3 1-6 4-6 6-3 to reach the Australian Open final and stay on course for an 18th Grand Slam title.
The 35-year-old will face Rafael Nadal on Sunday if the Spaniard beats Grigor Dimitrov in Friday’s semi-final.
The Swiss, returning from a six-month lay-off to rest his left knee, last won a major at Wimbledon in 2012.
He is the oldest man to reach a Grand Slam final since Ken Rosewall did so at the 1974 US Open at the age of 39.
“I couldn’t be happier right now,” said Federer. “I felt like everything happened so quickly at the end, I had to check the score.
“I never ever in my wildest dreams thought I’d come this far in Australia. It’s beautiful, I’m so happy.”
Federer’s extraordinary run in Melbourne had already seen him beat top-10 seeds Tomas Berdych and Kei Nishikori to reach the last four.
Seeded 17th following his injury, Federer had an 18-3 record against the fourth seed and reigning US Open champion coming into the semi-final, but the two had never played a five-set match.
Both players needed medical treatment during a match of high intensity but it was the 17-time Grand Slam winner who finally prevailed after three hours and five minutes.
Federer will now seek a fifth Australian Open title, and his first in Melbourne since 2010, when he plays in his 28th Grand Slam final and 100th Australian Open match on Sunday.
What makes Federer’s run to the final remarkable is the combination of being in the twilight of his career and not having played competitively since his Wimbledon semi-final exit last year.
Federer missed the Olympic Games and the rest of the 2016 season to have “more extensive rehabilitation” on a knee injury suffered in February while he ran a bath for his twin daughters.
He played just seven tour events last year, leading to him dropping out of the world’s top 10 for the first time in over 14 years.
After beginning his comeback with victories against Britain’s Dan Evans and France’s Richard Gasquet in the Hopman Cup – a non-ranked event played in the first week of January – Federer played down his chances of going far in the Australian Open.
But, after reaching his first Slam final since the 2015 US Open, he finally spoke about the prospect of winning in Melbourne.
“I can really actually talk about playing a final – I’ve been dodging that bullet for a few rounds,” he said.
“I’ll leave it all out here in Australia and if I can’t walk for five months that’s OK.”
Wawrinka noted how the tour and the fans had missed Federer, saying: “Everyone wants even more to see him play, to see him win. He’s flying on the court. He’s playing amazing tennis. He’s the best player ever.”
Former world number one Federer started the match brightly and had three early break points before converting his first set point, on Wawrinka’s serve, in the 12th game.
Wawrinka, the 2014 Australian Open champion, was broken for the second time at 2-3 in the second set as Federer maintained his impressive standards.
Clearly frustrated, the 31-year-old Wawrinka cracked his racquet in two over his left knee and, after the set, left the court with a trainer for treatment to his other knee.
But he came back superbly to win the third set in 26 minutes and break Federer in the ninth game of the fourth set to take the match to a decider.
Federer went off for a lengthy medical timeout for treatment to his leg as the physical nature of the match started to tell.
He also came back fighting and broke Wawrinka in the sixth game when the US Open champion double-faulted on break point.
There was no let-up as Federer completed a stunning victory to the delight of the majority of fans in Rod Laver Arena.
Federer explained why, after losing the fourth set, he left the arena to take his injury timeout.
“I have had a leg thing going on for a week and felt it from the second game on in the match,” he said.
“If you go off the court, that means the treatment is further up the leg.
“I never take injury timeouts. Stan took his, so I thought people won’t be mad – Stan won’t be mad hopefully.
“You hope something works, and that the physio has some magic hands going on.”
If 14-time major winner Nadal wins his semi-final the pair would contest their ninth Grand Slam final together and their first since the French Open in 2011, when Nadal won in four sets.
“Rafa has presented me with the biggest challenge in the game,” Federer said when asked about the prospect.
“I’m his number one fan. His game is tremendous. He’s an incredible competitor.
“I’m happy we had some epic battles over the years and of course it would be unreal to play here. I think both of us would never have thought we would be here playing in the final.”
BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller:
Australia Day was graced by two remarkable achievements by two remarkable players in their mid-thirties.
One, Roger Federer, has spent six months out of the game after knee surgery, and the other, Venus Williams, has lived for many years with an auto-immune disorder which causes fatigue and joint pain.
Federer had to win a deciding set against one of the toughest men on the block. The extraordinary defence he produced when Wawrinka hammered a forehand towards him on break point early in the fifth set turned out to be worth its weight in gold.
Yes, Mischa Zverev did him a favour by taking out Andy Murray, but Federer has now beaten Wawrinka, Nishikori and Berdych – with two of those matches going the distance.
Find out how to get into tennis in our special guide.
Venus and Serena Williams are relishing the prospect of competing against each other in the 2017 Australian Open final, describing it as “the moment” of their careers.
| Australian Open 2017 |
|---|
| Venue: Melbourne Park, Melbourne Dates: 16-29 January |
| Coverage: Daily live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra; live text on selected matches on the BBC Sport website; TV highlights on BBC Two and online from 21 January. |
Britain’s Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewett will face each other in the final of the Australian Open wheelchair doubles.
Scotland’s Reid and Joachim Gerard of Belgium beat Dutchman Maikel Scheffers and Australia’s Ben Weekes 6-0 6-1.
Englishman Hewett and Argentine Gustavo Fernandez beat France’s Stephane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer 1-6 6-1 10-7.
Lucy Shuker lost 6-3 6-2 to Japanese second seed Yui Kamiji in the semi-final of the women’s singles.
| Australian Open 2017 |
|---|
| Venue: Melbourne Park, Melbourne Dates: 16-29 Jan |
| Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra; live text on selected matches on the BBC Sport website; TV highlights on BBC Two and online. |
Venus Williams beats Coco Vandeweghe to reach her first Grand Slam final for eight years at the Australian Open.
The 36-year-old fought back to see off her fellow American 6-7 (3-7) 6-2 6-3 in Melbourne, setting up a potential final against her sister Serena.
Venus Williams, seeded 13th, lost to her sister in her only previous Australian Open final 14 years ago.
Serena Williams plays unseeded Croat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the second semi-final.
A victory for the world number two would set up the ninth all-Williams final at a Grand Slam – the last of which, at Wimbledon in 2009, was Venus’s most recent major singles final.
“It is unbelievable to watch Serena play tennis – the way she hits the ball and the competitor she is,” said Venus Williams.
“It would be a dream to see here on the opposite side of the net on Saturday.”
Vandeweghe, 25, had played superbly in seeing off world number one Angelique Kerber and French Open champion Garbine Muguruza to reach the last four, but she could not maintain that level in the semi-final.
The world number 35 deservedly took the first set on a tie-break but it was the experience of Williams that eventually prevailed.
Williams converted four of five break points, but more importantly reduced Vandeweghe to just one from 13 as the younger American was reduced to throwing her racquet in frustration as the chances slipped by.
Two double faults handed Williams a decisive double break in the second set and the seven-time grand Slam champion broke again at the start of the third.
Vandeweghe stayed close enough to keep the pressure, saving three match points before finally cracking with an error on the fourth, prompting a jubilant twirl of celebration from Williams.
“Everyone has their moment in the sun, maybe mine has gone on a little longer than other people, but I have nothing else to do,” joked Williams.
A longtime staple of the ATP Challenger Tour has returned to the circuit after a one-year hiatus. With former player and 37-time Challenger doubles winner Rik de Voest at the helm, the Odlum Brown VanOpen is back at the prestigious Hollyburn Country Club.
Nestled on the southern edge of the Coast Mountains in southwestern Canada, with Vancouver Harbour adorning the horizon, the multi-million dollar sports club is a symbol of opulence and for many players on the ATP Challenger Tour it has been a home away from home. The state-of-the-art facility, featuring 25 tennis courts – hard, clay and grass – is rivaled only by the world-class hospitality of its staff.
For 11 years, the Odlum Brown VanOpen was brought to the forefront of the ATP Challenger Tour under the attentive guidance of tournament director Floyd Hill. Following Hill’s departure last year, to pursue other interests, the $100,000 event was in search of a new leader. De Voest is eager to take up the responsibility. Having played his last professional event in Vancouver in 2014, nine years after meeting his wife there, the tournament is close to the South African’s heart.
“I am very excited to form part of the team reviving the Odlum Brown VanOpen,” said De Voest. “I believe bringing world-class tennis back to Vancouver provides great inspiration to the young players who aspire to compete on the ATP World Tour one day. As a past player and having played in many Challenger events, I can honestly say that the Odlum Brown VanOpen was one of the most impressive tournaments in the world. It provides top-class facilities, amazing player accommodation, fantastic crowd support and attracts some of the best players in the world, including future World No. 1s.”
The tournament’s unyielding dedication to providing players with top-notch hospitality and amenities made it such an attractive Challenger destination throughout the years, earning the respect of many players. Dudi Sela enjoyed the most success of any player to step through the doors at Hollyburn, posting a staggering 23-1 record including four titles. The Israeli, who claimed the inaugural edition in 2005 and won again in 2008, 2010 and 2015, is one of just five players to capture four titles at a single tournament on the ATP Challenger Tour.
“Vancouver is my favourite tournament,” Sela told ATPWorldTour.com. “I played five times and won four titles. It’s a really nice tournament. The city is great, the people who run it are really nice and it’s organised really well. Most of the players stay in housing, so we stayed with the tournament doctor. I keep in touch with him and he’s come to Israel to visit. We talk a lot on the phone.
“For sure I’m going to go there again and visit the city and the people. Last year there was an Israeli coach and I felt at home. Every night I was going to dinner in a different house. At most other tournaments you are in hotels but not there.”
Born in nearby Vernon, Canada, Vasek Pospisil won the Vancouver title in 2013 after reaching the semi-finals two years prior. The former World No. 25 has fond memories of his local tournament.
“Vancouver is such a special event in so many ways,” said Pospisil. “It was the nicest Challenger event that I had ever played and the organisers really knew how to take care of the players and the fans. It was also my home tournament and it was the one where I played my first professional match when I was 15, so I have many great memories from the event.”
Operated in conjunction with Tennis Canada, the Odlum Brown VanOpen thrived in its late-summer slot on the ATP Challenger Tour. In 2015, three former Top 10 players – Ernests Gulbis, Radek Stepanek and Jurgen Melzer – competed in the main draw, which was the most at a Challenger event since 2010.
“I have great memories from Vancouver,” said Marcos Baghdatis, who made two trips to Vancouver and left with a perfect 10-0 record, lifting the trophy in both 2009 and 2014. “It’s one of the best Challengers I ever played. I won it twice. Every time I went there and played on the centre court it was packed. It was a nice feeling and the fans are great. I stayed there twice with two different families. They have housing in Vancouver and both of the families were very nice. It is a beautiful city to stay in and experience in my life.”
In years past, the tournament was treated like an ATP World Tour event, providing items such as an exclusive lounge on site, private cars and free housing with local families – luxuries that they intended to reflect the Rogers Cup. De Voest is happy to carry on the tradition of excellence.
“When I first heard about the possibility of the event being brought back, I said I would be happy to assist. I was then approached to be the Tournament Director and was humbled at the request as it is an honour and privilege to manage an event with such a great reputation. I look forward to meeting the challenge and making the 2017 Odlum Brown VanOpen one of the best ever.”
.@Odlum_Brown #VanOpen returns in 2017! https://t.co/zRB2vyR9fQ #tennis #Vancouver @TennisBC @TennisCanada @ATPChallenger @ITFprocircuit pic.twitter.com/o9P5OBMLw6
— Odlum Brown VanOpen (@vanopentennis) January 23, 2017