Ladies and gentlemen, cancel your plans for this Thursday night because men’s tennis heavyweights Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer will resume their long and storied rivalry when they clash in the Australian Open semi-final.
Djokovic and Federer set up the blockbuster semi-final showdown by defeating their respective opponents, Kei Nishikori and Tomas Berdych, in straight sets in the quarter-finals.
The Serb returned to his clinical best against the world number seven after committing a whopping 100 unforced errors in his fourth-round, five-set win against Frenchman Gilles Simon.
Apart from coughing up a break early in the third set, Djokovic never really let Nishikori into the match, winning in straight sets to progress to his sixth Australian Open semi-final dating back to 2008.
It was his 37th victory in his last 38 starts dating back to the first round of 2011, with the only blot being a gut-wrenching five-set loss to Stan Wawrinka in the quarter-finals in 2014.
Djokovic’s record when reaching the semi-finals at Melbourne Park is impressive. Each time he has gotten this far, each time he has gone on to win, doing so in 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013 and of course last year.
Federer, for his part, reached the semi-finals at the Australian Open for the 12th time in his past 13 appearances by defeating Berdych in straight sets and reversing his last two Grand Slam defeats to the Czech.
This match had loomed as a potentially tricky match-up for the Swiss, who had lost to Berdych in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon in 2010 and the US Open in 2012. However, the 34-year-old dismissed the Czech for his fourth straight-sets win of the tournament.
The Swiss arrived in Melbourne after being struck down by the flu in Brisbane, where he lost to Milos Raonic in the final in straight sets. However, the 17-times Grand Slam champion has again displayed top form as he looks to win his first Australian Open title since 2010 and first Grand Slam title since Wimbledon 2012.
Depending on how Andy Murray fares for the remainder of the tournament, Federer has a good chance to reclaim the world number two ranking from the Scot, having suffered a shock four-set loss to Andreas Seppi in the third round last year when Murray reached the final.
As it stands, the Swiss has now earned 630 fresh rankings points (on top of the 90 he defended from last year) to be sitting on 8,795 points, 150 in arrears of Murray who has 8,945 points and has defended 360 of the 1,200 he earned from finishing runner-up to Novak Djokovic.
Thus, if Federer and Murray meet in Sunday night’s men’s final, the world number two ranking will be up for grabs; Djokovic will remain number one even if he fails to reach a sixth final at Melbourne Park.
Thursday night’s showdown will be their 45th career meeting, with the rivalry locked at 22 wins each dating back to their first meeting at the 2006 Monte Carlo Masters.
It will be their fourth meeting at the Australian Open, previously facing off in 2007, 2008 and 2011, and their 15th Grand Slam meeting. Djokovic leads both categories 2-1 and 8-6.
Federer has, however, led most of the rivalry, winning their first four meetings (including in the fourth round of the 2007 Australian Open) until it became locked at 20 wins all following the Wimbledon final last year, which was won by Djokovic.
The four meetings since then have also been split, with the pair trading victories at the ATP World Tour Finals last year. Federer won in the round robin stage before Djokovic reversed the result in the championship match for his fifth year-end title.
Prior to that, Federer prevented Djokovic from completing his Masters Slam in the final at Cincinnati while Djokovic defeated Federer in the final of the US Open in four sets three weeks later.
And so, the winner of this match will not only advance to the final on Sunday night, but also take the lead in the head-to-head.
If past history is anything to go by, then Djokovic could hold a winning record against Federer for the first time in the rivalry. The Serb has won their past two semi-final meetings at the Australian Open and has won their last three meetings at Grand Slam level, all in finals (Wimbledon 2014 and 2015, and the 2015 US Open).
In addition, Djokovic is also undefeated in his past five Australian Open semi-finals, and as mentioned before, each time he has gone on to win the title. Currently with ten Grand Slam titles, the earliest Djokovic can equal Rafael Nadal and Pete Sampras on 14 titles is if he sweeps the Grand Slam calendar this year.
He very nearly came close to doing that last year but was defeated by Stan Wawrinka in the final of the French Open; that defeat also prevented him from completing his Grand Slam set.
Again, attempting to capture that elusive title at Roland Garros will be the Serb’s top priority this year and so Djokovic will put in all the effort and energy possible to ensure that his curse on the Parisian red clay finally ends in 2016.
Djokovic’s hopes for a record sixth title will go on the line when he faces Federer, going for his 18th Grand Slam title but first in three-and-a-half years, in the first of the men’s semi-finals on Thursday night. The stage is set.
Who’s your pick for this clash? Post your predictions below.
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