Australian Open 2017: Roger Federer 'surprised' by semi-final run

Seventeen-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer says he did not expect to reach the Australian Open semi-finals after a six-month injury lay-off.

The four-time champion in Melbourne is making his competitive return after last playing at Wimbledon in July.

Federer beat Mischa Zverev 6-1 7-5 6-2 to set up Thursday’s last-four match against fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka.

“Feeling as good as I am, playing as good as I am, that’s a huge surprise to me,” said the 35-year-old.

• Latest scores, results and order of play
• Impressive Federer sets up Wawrinka semi
• Confident Konta ‘can improve in every aspect’

“If someone would have told me I’d play in the semis against Stan, never would I have called that one.

“For Stan, yes, but not for me. I honestly didn’t even know a few days ago that he was in my section of the draw or I’m in his section.”

Federer defying world ranking

Federer, who has not won a Grand Slam title since triumphing at Wimbledon in 2012, had been sidelined by a knee injury throughout the second half of last year and has slipped from third in the world to 17th.

He played in the non-ranking Hopman Cup in Perth earlier in January, but has come through 18 sets in Melbourne.

“I think winning back-to-back matches in best-of-five sets against quality, great players has surprised me most,” he said.

“Really that’s been for me the big question mark, if I could do that so early in my comeback.

“I felt I was always going to be dangerous on any given day in a match situation. But obviously as the tournament would progress, maybe I would fade away with energy, you know, that kind of stuff.”

‘Roger’s the best of all time’

Federer holds an 18-3 winning record against Wawrinka, but the 31-year-old will go into the semi-final as the world number four and looking for a second consecutive Grand Slam title after last year’s US Open success.

Federer has won their past two meetings, at the ATP World Tour Finals and in the US Open in 2015, but Wawrinka holds a Grand Slam win against his Davis Cup team-mate, coming in the quarter-finals of the French Open in the same year.

“Against Roger, it’s always special because he’s so good. He’s the best player of all time,” said the three-time Grand Slam winner.

“He has an answer for everything. But I managed to beat him in a Grand Slam, so we’ll see.

“It’s great to see him back at that level. Hopefully I can manage to play a great match.”

Stan, you don’t call any more

All of Wawrinka’s three Grand Slam titles have come since Federer won his last five years ago.

And Wawrinka’s rise to becoming a consistent top-10 player did not come until he was aged 28, and after plenty of help from his fellow Swiss.

“I remember giving Stan a lot of advice on how he should play certain guys,” said Federer.

“Then the day came where he didn’t call me so much any more. He called me less and less.

“I also felt like I didn’t tell him any more, because he created his knowledge, his base, had his team. Only from time to time would I give him advice if he asked me.

“Otherwise I was happy that he was able to let go and go on his own path.”

Analysis – Can Federer get past Wawrinka?

British Davis Cup captain Leon Smith on BBC Radio 5 live

It’s a great match because Wawrinka wants to stay back and bludgeon the ball with huge swings and power.

Federer’s job, in the lively conditions, is to take time away from Wawrinka and not allow him to get into that rhythm. Federer has to come forward and test Wawrinka’s passing shots a lot.

That’s important because I don’t think Stan’s the best passer in the world. Roger will be able to come in a lot because Wawrinka does chip and block a lot of first-serve returns.

The way Federer is playing, even though he has missed six months of tennis, I think he’s maybe the slight favourite from what I’ve seen.

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Confident Wawrinka Cruises Past Tsonga Into SFs

Confident Wawrinka Cruises Past Tsonga Into SFs

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Impressive Federer sets up Wawrinka semi-final

Four-time champion Roger Federer coasted into the Australian Open semi-finals with a straight-set defeat of unseeded Mischa Zverev.

The 35-year-old reached the last four in Melbourne for a 13th time with a 6-0 7-5 6-2 win over Zverev, who upset world number one Andy Murray on Sunday.

Federer, seeded 17th as he seeks an 18th Grand Slam title, faces compatriot Stan Wawrinka in the last four.

Fourth seed Wawrinka beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 6-2.

• Watch day nine highlights on BBC Two from 16:45 GMT on Tuesday
• Venus & Vandeweghe through to semi-finals
• Konta ‘as prepared as possible’ for first Serena meeting

Wawrinka won his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in 2014.

The 31-year-old has since added victories at the French Open in 2015 and the US Open last September, and is rated by many as the favourite in Melbourne following surprise defeats for Murray and Novak Djokovic.

Wawrinka fired up after argument

Wawrinka edged a tight opening set against Tsonga, with the pair exchanging words after the tie-break.

“What did you say? You’re the one looking at me and talking to me. What are you looking for?” Wawrinka said to Tsonga in French. “Come on, let it go. Did I look at you once?”

It appeared as though Tsonga was fighting back when he finally broke serve to lead 4-3 in the second set, but Wawrinka snuffed out the danger with two successive breaks for a two-set lead.

An early break was enough to give Wawrinka the final set and he closed out a straightforward win to reach an eighth Grand Slam semi-final.

On the possibility of facing friend and compatriot Federer, he said: “Playing in a semi here is always special – I won my first Grand Slam here in font of amazing fans. If it’s against Roger, I hope a few will cheer for me.”

Asked about the exchange after the first set, Tsonga replied: “Sometimes it happens. We can talk during the game. Nothing special, yeah.

“We just spoke about things that I think is only between him and me, and that’s it.”

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Murray set to miss Davis Cup tie in Canada

World number one Andy Murray has not been included in Britain’s Davis Cup team for next month’s tie in Canada as he recuperates following his shock exit from the Australian Open.

The team, captained by Leon Smith, includes Kyle Edmund, Dan Evans, Jamie Murray and Dominic Inglot.

But Smith said Andy Murray could still feature in Ottawa, from 3-5 February.

“We’ll just keep some dialogue going with Andy and see how he feels in the coming days,” he told BBC Sport.

Murray, who lost to Mischa Zverev in the fourth round in Melbourne, played a packed schedule in the second half of 2016 to reach the top of the world rankings.

Smith added: “Andy has been unbelievable for our team. He gets on great with all the players and the staff and loves playing for Great Britain.

“But he has to look after himself and has played an awful lot of tennis, particularly in the last six months of the year.

“At some point you need to take a break.”

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Konta has no weaknesses – GB player's new coach before Serena quarter

As a hugely successful former coach to Grand Slam winners Kim Clijsters and Victoria Azarenka, Wim Fissette was not short of job offers for the 2017 season.

But after British number one Johanna Konta made her interest clear, the softly spoken 36-year-old Belgian spotted a wonderful opportunity.

“From the outside, she looked like a very ambitious, hard-working player with a very strong body,” Fissette recalled on the eve of Konta’s Australian Open quarter-final against Serena Williams (02:00 GMT, Wednesday).

• Latest scores, results and order of play
• Konta ‘prepared’ for first Serena meeting
• Konta can upset Williams – Navratilova

‘No weaknesses – but she can be better in every aspect’

Fisette and Konta started working together a couple of weeks after her rewarding partnership with Esteban Carril reached the end of the road. The two had been unable to agree financial terms for the new year, but after a promising week with Fissette at the Mouratoglou Academy in Nice, Konta had a plan in place for the next stage of her career.

The omens are extremely encouraging. After losing in the semi-finals in Shenzhen in the first week of the year, Konta beat Agnieszka Radwanska for the first time in her career to win the prestigious WTA title in Sydney. She won 10 sets in a row in the process, and has now extended her unbroken run to 18 after four comprehensive victories in Melbourne.

“The more I know about her, the more I like her as a player,” Fissette told BBC Sport.

“She’s physically very strong, she’s got a big serve – for sure top three in women’s tennis – and she’s got big groundstrokes. I think there’s not a weakness in her game, but I do believe she can be better in every aspect.”

What is so impressive is that 2016 should be such a hard act to follow. Konta won her first WTA title in Stanford, and finished as the runner-up in Beijing (one of the four most important tournaments on the women’s tour) having started the year with that semi-final appearance at the Australian Open.

Players often struggle to reproduce the form of a breakthrough season, but Konta is bucking the trend.

“We’ve seen this time and time again on both tours,” says Courtney Nguyen, a senior writer for the WTA Tour.

“You get a big result, you have a breakout season, and the following season you end up suffering a bit of a sophomore slump.

“It can be very difficult playing with that pressure of knowing what can be expected of you. What’s so refreshing with Jo is that’s just not how she sees the world. She takes it all in her stride.”

It is also remarkable how Konta appears to have dealt so well with the end of her partnership with Carril, as well as the untimely death of her mental coach. Juan Coto was a vital component of her team and it was his counsel which helped kick-start her rapid rise through the rankings.

Konta prefers not to reflect publicly on that difficult period, or how she has adjusted so successfully since, which is perhaps a strategy of which Coto would have approved.

‘There will be a day when she wins a Grand Slam’

The 25-year-old is now very much in demand with the international – as well as the British – media. She conducted six meaty television interviews – including with Australia’s Channel 7 and the US-orientated Tennis Channel – after her fourth-round victory over Ekaterina Makarova.

She is increasingly confident in her conversations, happy to discuss changing her two-month-old nephew’s nappy, and slowly but surely prepared to give a little more insight into her approach.

But will all this be enough to bring her victory over Serena Williams the first time they ever share a court together? Some opponents seem to have lost such a match in their mind before a ball is struck, but Konta is different and will genuinely, and quite rightly, believe she can win.

No other current player can quite compare to the 22-time Grand Slam champion, but Konta was not at all overawed by Serena’s sister Venus in their three meetings. Two of them she won: in the opening round of last year’s Australian Open, and then in the final in Stanford last July.

And Fissette’s very first impressions of Konta are also worth recalling.

“The first time she played a player I was coaching – that was Victoria Azarenka in China – I was very impressed with the attitude she had,” he says.

“She showed respect to the player but she was there to win the match. She came on the court with the belief that she could beat a top player like her and I still see that.

“I believe there will be a day when she will win a Grand Slam.”

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Roddick To Be Inducted Into Tennis Hall Of Fame

Roddick To Be Inducted Into Tennis Hall Of Fame

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Venus Williams back in Australian Open semis

Venus Williams reached the Australian Open semi-finals for the first time in 14 years with a straight-set win over Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Williams, the 13th seed, saw off 24th seed Pavlyuchenkova 6-4 7-6 (7-3) in the first of the quarter-finals.

The 36-year-old American has never won the title, her best effort a runner-up finish to sister Serena in 2003.

She goes on to face unseeded American Coco Vandeweghe, who thrashed Spain’s seventh seed Garbine Muguruza 6-4 6-0.

• Watch day nine highlights on BBC Two from 16:45 GMT on Tuesday
• Konta ‘as prepared as possible’ for first Serena meeting

Vandeweghe, 25, followed up her win over world number one and defending champion Angelique Kerber with a crushing defeat of French Open champion Muguruza.

“I really wasn’t feeling all that great out there, I was feeling kind of nervous,” said Vandeweghe.

“I just tried to play my best, stay within myself, keep my patterns. I fought through a few break points on her serve, kept on the pressure in the first set and then she finally cracked.

“Once I got rolling in the second it was like a freight train. You couldn’t stop it.”

Williams dropped serve four times against Pavlyuchenkova but was much the stronger in the decisive moments, becoming the oldest woman to reach a Grand Slam semi-final since Martina Navratilova at Wimbledon in 1994.

“I’m so excited, today was such a hard-fought match. She never let up,” said the seven-time Grand Slam champion.

“It’s wonderful to be here at the start of the year, I want to go further. I’m not happy with this.”

On Wednesday, Serena Williams will play Britain’s Johanna Konta at around 02:00 GMT, following the match between Czech fifth seed Karolina Plisokva and Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.

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Previewing Tuesday's Australian Open QFs

Previewing Tuesday's Australian Open QFs

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Goffin Hoping For Another Australian Open Surprise

Goffin Hoping For Another Australian Open Surprise

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Roger Federer vs Mischa Zverev Australian Open 2017 Preview

It has been predicted on a number of occasions but now more than ever the reality of an 18th grand slam title for Roger Federer…

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