Federer, Williams dominate familiar opponents to advance to semifinals

Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer face off in a blockbuster semi-final on Thursday in their 45th career meeting, while Serena Williams zeroes in on her seventh Australian Open decider.

Murray is still looking for his first win in the Australian Open, but he’s had plenty of success in this tournament before, advancing to the finals four times in the last six years.

Chris Evert claimed Serena Williams wanted to beat Maria Sharapova for “personal and professional reasons” after the world No 1 romped to her 18th consecutive win over her Russian rival, writes Neil McLeman in Melbourne.

Federer is bidding to win his 5th Australian Open and his first Grand Slam since 2012 Wimbledon. He advanced 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 over No. 7 Kei Nishikori. He hasnt gone past the semifinals here since winning the title in 2010.

She came to Melbourne without having completed a set in four months with a question mark over a knee injury and received medical attention twice during her match against Sharapova.

“It was super intense”, Williams said.

“Tomas has caused me a lot of problems over the years and it’s a pleasure playing against him”, Federer said.

Williams fired 13 aces against Sharapova, breaking four times and producing 31 winners.

The only potential cloud on the horizon for Williams at this stage of the tournament is her health.

Djokovic hit only 11 groundstroke winners in disposing of Nishikori, who made 54 unforced errors and had his service broken six times.

“She presents a completely different game, an extremely exciting game”, Williams said of the wily Pole. “She was really explosive off the return. He definitely has the game for that”, the Serb observed. Coming into the tournament as the favorite to win it all, Djokovic is a 1-3 (-300) favorite to defeat Federer on Thursday on the Australian Open betting lines. The Swiss maestro, who was bothered by a flu in the Australian open warm up event at Brisbane, seems to be in much better shape this fortnight and definitely stands to be the biggest threat to Djokovic’s quest for a record 6th Australian Open title. Djokovic beat Federer in the Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals and in the ATP Finals title match last season.

Federer said, “It’s always a thrill to come out here, even more so against a great player like Novak”. He’s playing good tennis again.

Djokovic said his day off was merely “hitting the re-set button”.

“I know he’s really, really good, but he’s not a mega-server so he still lets you play”.

Federer has lost their last three Grand Slam encounters, but still yearns for his elusive 18th major.

Federer, 34, also has some inspiration in his next match against Djokovic.

Federer has taken a back seat to Djokovic and Co. since last winning a major in 2012. “In important moments I stayed composed – overall it was a very solid performance”. “I think the first set was definitely key to the rest of the match because I think it maybe might’ve taken some energy out of Tomas”. I think that makes me play better.

“I just knew after the first set that I wanted to start playing the way I have been, that got me to the quarterfinals, so I was just trying to do that”.