Wozniacki, Federer crash out

Djokovic outs Swiss, paves way for maiden Australian Open title.

MELBOURNE: Novak Djokovic sensationally knocked Roger Federer out of the Australian Open semi-finals, leaving the defending champion without a Grand Slam title for the first time in eight years. The third-seed’s comprehensive 7-6 (7/3), 7-5, 6-4 victory over the great Swiss came after China’s Li Na made history by becoming the first Asian woman to reach a major final, where she will meet Kim Clijsters tomorrow.

The Serbian’s win leaves him facing either Andy Murray or David Ferrer in Sunday’s final, where men’s tennis will have its first Grand Slam champion other than Nadal or Federer in three years. The world number three now has a golden chance to add to his lone Grand Slam title achieved in Melbourne in 2008.

Meanwhile, world number two Federer lost his last remaining major title after a record 16-Slam streak which began with his first victory at Wimbledon in 2003, ending an era of unprecedented dominance. “Novak was the better player tonight, I’ve got to accept that and move on,” said the four-time winner. “It’s not the end anyway... I wish I could have won here for the fifth time, but it was impossible tonight.”

The impressive Djokovic took control of the first-set tie-breaker and recovered from a double service break in the second to take a two-set lead over the rattled Federer, before gaining the crucial break late in the third.

Li makes history

China’s Li beat world number one Wozniacki 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 to become the first Asian woman to reach a Grand Slam final with Kim Clijsters. Li courageously saved a match point before clawing her way back into the encounter, her second straight Australian Open semi-final, dashing Wozniacki’s hopes of winning a maiden major title. The 28-year-old from Wuhan now has a golden opportunity to bring home China’s first Grand Slam singles title.

Li, China’s number one, fought back from a poor start where she made error after error to give Wozniacki easy points, to gradually overhaul her younger opponent. When asked what had inspired her gritty fightback, the crowd favourite laughingly replied “Prize money”, adding that her husband-coach Jiang Shan’s snoring had disturbed her sleep.

The 20-year-old Wozniacki had gone into the tournament having to fend off accusations that she was not a deserving world number one because she is yet to win a Grand Slam. But for the first set-and-a-half, as she systematically picked apart Li’s game and broke down the Chinese player’s fierce forehand, she looked every bit the world’s best player. However, just when Li looked down and out, she cut down her error rate and began to find her range with her groundstrokes.

Meanwhile, Clijsters crushed world number two Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 6-3 to reach her second Australian Open final in just one hour and 13 minutes. Zvonareva got off to the perfect start when she broke Clijsters in the opening game, but from there on the Belgian dominated. The 27-year-old barely made a mistake, banishing the erratic form that has plagued her career.

Third-seed Novak Djokovic

“Federer puts a lot of pressure on you, so I tried to stay to the last moment and really it was one of the best matches I’ve played in a while.”

Third-seed Kim Clijsters

“Vera is a tough player and I knew it would be a tough match against her. I knew I had to be on top of my game and lift my level compared to my other matches.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2011.