Melbourne: More than 90 per cent of the men still standing at the Australian Open must have shared the same thought on Sunday night. “Oh Gilles, why couldn’t you finish the job?” This was the big chance to take out the odds-on favourite, and Gilles Simon muffed it. In most grand-slam events, there is a moment when Novak Djokovic looks vulnerable, when his catlike movement loses its bounce and his laser-guided groundstrokes start missing their mark. Here in Australia, that moment arrived on Sunday, in a nervy match during which Djokovic committed exactly 100 unforced errors. It was the sort of tally he would normally expect to run up over the course of an entire tournament. But he survived. That is his greatest ability. Earlier this week, he was back to his usual calm and controlled self, dishing out a straight-sets defeat to Kei Nishikori in a shade over two hours. Not that this was an especially demanding quarter-final: Nishikori made 54 unforced errors of his own. After Serena Williams had earlier made short work of Maria Sharapova, Melburnians are convinced that the 2015 men’s and women’s champions will both hold on to their trophies this year. But wait. Who is hoving into view on his customary white charger? Roger Federer may yet have a word or two to say in this debate. OK, so he may have lost against Djokovic in the final of both the past two grand-slam events. But he also troubled him more last season than any other player, scoring best-of-three-sets wins in London, Cincinnati and Dubai. In other words, Federer was responsible for half the defeats that Djokovic endured all season. These two old rivals will square up once more in Thursday’s semi-final, a match which promises to decide the destiny of the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup. It will also tilt the balance of their head-to-head statistics, which show that each player has now won 22 matches in a series dating back 10 years. The bookmakers — if we are allowed to discuss those after the gambling revelations of last week — will strongly favour the younger man. But as Pat Cash tweeted after Federer’s straight-sets evisceration of Tomas Berdych, there is a growing feeling that this match could deliver a classic. “Federer mighty impressive today in hot conditions,” Cash wrote. “Locker room is turning towards Fed for the title. Who am I to disagree?” Certainly Federer had been magisterial in his stroke play against Berdych, especially when volleying like a throwback to the Eighties. “Roger was just too good today,” Berdych said after his 7-6, 6?2, 6-4 defeat. “When you don’t get any single point [for free], then it’s a bit difficult.” It has the makings of a classic.
— The Telegraph Group Ltd, London 2016
