{"id":185215,"date":"2016-01-28T12:32:24","date_gmt":"2016-01-28T12:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=185215"},"modified":"2016-01-28T12:32:24","modified_gmt":"2016-01-28T12:32:24","slug":"djokovic-beats-roger-federer-in-australian-open-semi-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=185215","title":{"rendered":"Djokovic beats Roger Federer in Australian Open semi-final"},"content":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic advanced to his sixth Australian Open final with a 6-1 6-2 3-6 6-3 victory over Roger Federer.<\/p>\n

The world number one dominated the first two sets with some superb hitting, then had to hold off a spirited Federer fightback.<\/p>\n

It is the third straight Grand Slam in which Djokovic has beaten the Swiss, prolonging Federer\u2019s wait for an 18th major title.<\/p>\n

Djokovic will face Andy Murray or Canada\u2019s Milos Raonic in the final.<\/p>\n

The Serb has beaten British number one Murray in the final on three previous occasions in the final, including last year\u2019s four-set victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played unbelievably in the first two sets but I needed to because Roger has been playing unbelievably and I knew he would be aggressive,\u201d Djokovic said.<\/p>\n

Djokovic dominant in blistering start<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before the match, much attention had focused on the first set, with Federer never having beaten Djokovic in a best-of-five match having dropped the opener.<\/p>\n

But it was barely a contest as Djokovic twice broke the world number three in his opening three service games.<\/p>\n

Pummelling Federer with deep groundstrokes and using clever changes of pace to induce 12 unforced errors from his opponent, the Serb wrapped up the set inside 23 minutes.<\/p>\n

And he was no less dominant in the second, decisively breaking to love in the third game as he threatened to hand a rattled Federer one of his worst ever defeats.<\/p>\n

Not since a 2001 loss to Andre Agassi at the US Open had Federer been limited to just three games in the first two sets.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Brad<\/p>\n

Andy Murray\u2019s former coach Brad Gilbert praised Djokovic\u2019s performance in the first two sets as among the best of all time (Image credit: Brad Gilbert via Twitter)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

But just when a Djokovic victory seemed inevitable, somehow Federer managed to reverse the momentum of the match to take the third set.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old held his opening three service games then seized his opportunity in a mammoth sixth game, missing three break points before finally breaking Djokovic at the fourth opportunity.<\/p>\n

The fourth set was closely contested as a resurgent Federer threatened to extend Djokovic to five sets for the first time since their epic meeting in the 2014 Wimbledon final.<\/p>\n

But a poor game at 3-4 ultimately proved costly as Djokovic broke and then served out to love to edge ahead 23-22 in his rivalry with Federer.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic advanced to his sixth Australian Open final with a 6-1 6-2 3-6 6-3 victory over Roger Federer. The world number one dominated the first two sets with some superb hitting, then had to hold off a spirited Federer fightback. It is the third straight Grand Slam in which Djokovic has beaten the Swiss, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[249],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-185215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=185215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185215\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=185215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=185215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=185215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}