Roger Federer stayed on course for his second Australian Open crown and seventh grand slam triumph with a four-set victory over Nicolas Kiefer in today’s semi-final.
Federer, the 2004 winner and tournament top seed, had a minor hiccup in the second set but eventually breezed past his German opponent 6-3, 5-7, 6-0, 6-2. He will play Marcos Baghdatis, of Cyprus, in the final, a player he beat in the fourth round in Melbourne last year.
The world No 1 was made to struggle early in the match against Kiefer, the 21 seed, but once the third set got under way with the match level at 1-1, Federer looked unbeatable. He immediately broke his opponent and went on to win all six games.
Kiefer was blown away in the fourth set, too. When it was over, Kiefer had hit 53 unforced errors to just 33 for the Swiss, who earlier in the tournament had had to fight much harder to overcome Tommy Haas and Nikolay Davydenko. In their fourth round match, Federer needed five sets to see off Haas while in the quarter-final against Davydenko the Russian lost two sets in close tie-breaks.
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He will not be taking Baghdatis lightly. The Cypriot entered the Australian Open as the world’s 54th ranked player but he has upset Andy Roddick, seeded two, Ivan Ljubicic, seeded seven, and David Nalbandian, seeded four, on his way to the final.