Australian Open, Melbourne
Venue: Melbourne Park Dates: 17-30 January
Coverage: Watch on BBC TV, Red Button, BBC Sport website (UK only) & Eurosport; listen on BBC 5 live sports extra and online; text commentary online; full details

Federer has now won seven of his eight meetings with Wawrinka

Defending champion Roger Federer marched into the Australian Open semi-finals with an emphatic 6-1 6-3 6-3 win over fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka.

Federer broke the underwhelming Wawrinka in his first service game and took the opener inside 30 minutes.

Nineteenth seed Wawrinka squandered a chance to break in the sixth game of the second and was soon made to pay.

Federer claimed the next three games before making a solitary breakthrough in the third game of the final set.

The world number two will face third seed Novak Djokovic in his eighth appearance in the final four of the tournament, and if he serves as well as he did in the quarter-final he will be a hard man to stop.

JONATHAN OVEREND'S BLOG There was an exhibition element to much of this performance, which, while not perfect, was clearly Federer's best of the tournament.

"The scoreline suggests maybe it was easier than it looked like. I thought it was a pretty tough match," said Federer

"He really got into the match, especially in the second set. But I was able to mix it up well and just keep him on his toes.

"I've been in so many quarterfinals, in this situation so many times before, that I have the experience and I have the game to be tricky for him."

Before the match neither second-seeded Federer, winner of the Qatar Open, nor Wawrinka, the Chennai Open champion, had tasted defeat this season.

But in dropping three sets in his previous four rounds Federer, who is hunting a 17th Grand Slam title, had invited suggestions that he may be vulnerable to an upset.

Wawrinka had given his supporters hope with straight-sets wins over Gael Monfils and Andy Roddick in the previous rounds, but struggled to reproduce that form as his serve particularly failed to fire.

Federer immediately took an assured grip on the match and, after delivering the first game to love, a deft backhand volley handed the 29-year-old two break points in the second.

Wawrinka sprayed wide to surrender the first and, after coming off worse in an exchange on his favoured backhand side in the next game, the younger Swiss found himself 3-0 down in only seven minutes.

A pair of backhand winners down the line in the fourth and fifth games hinted at the skills that could trouble the four-time champion, but the set was gone once he was broken in the sixth by a stinging Federer return on his toes.

Roger always had an answer today. He was just too good for me Stanislas Wawrinka

With the opener consigned to history, Wawrinka posed more of an obstacle in the second but will rue his wastefulness when he appeared to have the Federer serve at his mercy.

With a clear chance to move 4-2 in the lead and Federer rooted on the baseline, Wawrinka planted an over-eager backhand between the tramlines.

Instead, it was Wawrinka's service that fell as the next game ended with a clumsy forehand volley into midcourt that allowed Federer to coax a shot down the line and edge ahead.

A disguised drop shot from Federer brought up break point in the ninth and Wawrinka strayed long to drop two sets behind.

Federer duly took a third successive service game from his compatriot with a drilled forehand and, pinned back by a first serve that landed 77% of the time, Wawrinka rarely threatened a response.

The 25-year-old had powered down 24 aces in victory over Roddick but managed just one as he failed to find any sort of foothold in the match.

Wawrinka briefly suggested he may prolong his defeat as he rallied to 0-30 in the final game, but Federer was not to be denied.

"Roger always had an answer today," reflected Wawrinka.

"He was just too good for me. Roger is always the same - you know he can win this tournament."

Federer leads Djokovic 13-6 in head-to-heads and the Swiss has won the last three meetings between the two.

However, Djokovic beat Federer in straight sets the last time they met at the Australian Open, in the semi-finals in 2008.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version