- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Roger Federer has gone through to the 2018 Australian Open men’s singles final in an hour and three minutes after Hyeon Chung retired due to a foot injury.
Final score
Hyeon Chung 1 2 (retired)
Roger Federer 6 5
Roger Federer continues his hunt for an incredible 20th grand slam when he takes on South Korean youngster, the master of defence Hyeon Chung. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 7:30pm (AEDT).
Defending champion Federer has had his path to the final open up spectacularly.
The only seeded players he has taken on so far are Richard Gasquet and Tomas Berdych, but even they haven’t been able to cause him many problems.
He looked like losing the opening set against Berdych, but in true Federer fashion, rallied back to take victory in straight sets. He is yet to drop one throughout his five matches in Melbourne and has only dropped one of 24 for the entire year.
The 36-year-old is in fantastic form and getting to play another unseeded player in the semi-final has him a heavy favourite to progress as he did last year when he went past countryman Stan Wawrinka in the semi-final and Rafael Nadal in the final.
The world No.2 will have to be wary of the Korean though. He might be ranked outside the top 50, but has pulled off some incredible scalps in the last three rounds. He went past Alexander Zverev in five sets, then blew Novak Djokovic off the court in straight sets.
His greatest skill throughout the first grand slam of the year has been incredible court coverage and defence. Chung has almost looked like a clone of Djokovic at his peak and Federer will need to bring out a full arsenal of weapons in his attack.
The Fed Express has a mix of attack and defence and so, on paper at least, should have the better of the match-up, but if he isn’t over-awed by the situation, Chung will cause plenty of issues.
The Korean’s last win, on Rod Laver Arena against Tennys Sandgren on Rod Laver Arena came in straight sets and while he doesn’t have the offensive weapons to seriously hurt Federer, if he can stay in points, he will give himself a chance.
The biggest problem is that Federer makes so few mistakes and can be as patient as the best of them.
Marin Cilic awaits the winner of this match in the final on Sunday night, while the pair have never played before this meeting.
Prediction
Federer should have too much for Chung in this one. Chung should be very competitive, but it’s hard to see him breaking Federer’s strong serve and tie breakers are probably going to be a bridge too far as well.
Federer in straight, but difficult, sets.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of the second men’s semi-final at the Australian Open from 7:30pm (AEDT) and be sure to drop a comment below.