MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA—Novak Djokovic overcome his breathing problems and fatigue to beat his old friend Andy Murray in an almost five-hour Australian Open semifinal Friday night and move into his third straight Grand Slam final.
Standing between Djokovic and a record shared by some of the greatest players of all time will be No. 2-ranked Rafael Nadal, a man he beat in six tournament finals in 2011.
Despite appearing tired and sore from the second set, Djokovic rallied to beat Murray 6-3, 3-6, 6-7 (4), 6-1, 7-5 in a rematch of the 2011 final at Melbourne Park.
After wasting a chance to serve out the match at 5-3 in the fifth and letting Murray back into the contest, Djokovic cashed in his first match point when the Scottish player missed a forehand after four hours, 50 minutes.
“You have to find strength in those moments and energy, and that keeps you going,” he said. “At this level, very few points decide the winner.
“I think we both went through a physical crisis. You know, him at the fourth set, me all the way through the second and midway through the third. It was a very even match throughout, from the first to the last point.”
Djokovic dropped onto his back, fully laid out on the court. He got up and shook hands with Murray, before jogging back out onto the court like a boxer, dropping to his knees and crossing himself.
It was already after 12:30 a.m. Saturday when he got up again and pumped his arms triumphantly.
“Andy deserves the credit to come back from 2-5 down. He was fighting. I was fighting,” Djokovic said. “Not many words that can describe the feeling of the match.
“Evidently it was a physical match . . . it was one of the best matches I played. Emotionally and mentally it was equally hard.”
In junior boys play, Vancouver’s Filip Peliwo advanced to the final with a 6-4, 6-4 win over American Mackenzie McDonald. Second-seeded Eugenie Bouchard of Montreal lost her girls semifinal to fourth-seeded Russian Yulia Putintseva 7-5, 6-1.
The defeat was a bitter setback for Murray, who lost the previous two Australian finals.
Djokovic finished last year at No. 1 after winning three of the four majors, including a straight-sets win over Murray in the Australian final. His only loss at a Grand Slam in 2011 was against Roger Federer in the French Open semifinals.
It was phenomenal season after previously only winning one major — the 2008 Australian Open — and not returning to a final for 11 Grand Slams.
“To be honest, I think I matured as a player. I started to believe on the court I could win majors,” he said. “Rafa and Roger are the most dominant players for the last seven, eight years. . . . It was very hard to take away the titles from them. They will not give you the titles. You have to earn it.”
He is now aiming to be only the fifth man in the Open Era started in 1968 to win three straight majors — only Rod Laver, Pete Sampras, Federer and Nadal have achieved it before him, with only Laver going on to complete the Grand Slam by winning all four majors in a season.
The Australian great was in the arena named in his honour to watch Friday night’s semifinal, as he had been when 2009 Australian Open winner Nadal came back from a set and a break down to beat four-time champion Federer in four sets the previous night.
Djokovic’s 70-6 win-loss record in 2011 included those six wins over Nadal in finals — including Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
Both players had their form dips, but Djokovic’s were more obvious. He led by a set and a break before Murray started coming back at him. Then Djokovic started walking gingerly and appeared to be struggling for breath — just as he had been in his straights sets quarter-final win over No. 5-ranked David Ferrer.
At one point, he pointed to his nose and seemed to indicated to his support group that he was having trouble breathing.
He stayed in the points, despite Murray scrambling and trying to get him involved in long rallies.
“You try to get energized in every way,” he said. “A lot of liquids, try to eat something, as well, that gives you energy.”
He put his breathing problems down to allergies, and said he’d seen a doctor for it.
After losing a tight tiebreaker and virtually conceding the fourth set, Murray rallied again after slipping behind 5-2 in the fifth. He broke Djokovic at love when the Serb was serving for the match on a three-game streak that put all the pressure back on the defending champion.
But Djokovic composed himself and seemed to be gathering energy as the match wore on. He held serve and then broke Murray to finish it off.
“I’m extremely delighted to be in the final,” Djokovic said. “What can be a bigger challenge than playing against Rafa Nadal, one of the greatest players ever.
“I’m going to try to recover. Obviously it’s going to be physical as well. So I need to do some push-ups tonight.”
Despite being friends and childhood rivals, this was only the second meeting between Djokovic and Murray at a Grand Slam. Djokovic beat Murray in the 2011 Australian final and had a 6-4 lead in their overall head-to-heads at tour level.
Murray won the Brisbane International and came into the semifinal on a 10-match winning streak and with new coach, eight-time major winner Ivan Lendl, in his support crew.
The blue-and-white crossed Scottish flags fluttered in the crowd, held by fans with the flag painted on their faces and some wearing their tartan Tam hats. The support was evenly split at Rod Laver Arena, encouraging both players in the tense final set.
The Maria Sharapova vs. Victoria Azarenka women’s final on Saturday night is being previewed in the local media as a battle of the two loudest grunters on the tour. Azarenka, who won the Sydney International title the weekend before the season’s first major, is bidding to continue her winning shriek.
Sharapova has won three majors, but none since the 2008 Australian Open. Azarenka will be playing her first Grand Slam final.
The winner will move to the top of the women’s rankings. Caroline Wozniacki, who came into the tournament as No. 1, will drop three places after her quarter-final loss to 2011 champion Kim Clijsters.
Russians Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva won the women’s doubles final on Friday with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 victory over the Italian duo of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci.
Bethanie Mattek-Sands and her Romanian partner Horia Tecau advanced to the mixed doubles final with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Indian pair Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi.
In the men’s doubles final Saturday, American twins Bob and Mike Bryan are aiming for a Grand Slam record 12th major when they take on Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek.

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Jan 25 11:55pm

Victoria Azarenka's shrieks continued into the third set.
She survived a break point to get her first lead since the first set then powered through the second game and broke Kim Clijster's serve on four-straight points. Fist pumps and shrieks continued to fuel Azarenka's game, but Clijsters broke back, thanks in part to an Azarenka double fault.
Down on her own serve with the games tied at 2-2, Clijsters stood on the other side of the net from Azarenka as she thrust another fist pump toward the tournament's defending champion.
Until Clijsters snuck in and dropped a backhand slice volley in an extreme cross court - and stared across the court. But then she double faulted the game away to give Azarenka the break. Their nerves seemed to flip flop with their service games.
Then unforced errors crept in for Clijsters. After five games, Azarenka led 4-1. The match momentum was in Azarenka's favor, but what about the nerves? What about Clijsters' experience?
Well, they dueled. Through four deuces and a 10-minute game Clijsters broke Azarenka to bring the defending champion back into the third set, 4-3.
As the commentators said, Azarenka wanted to get through to her first Grand Slam, but Clijsters wanted to keep her title.
With much of the crowd against her, Azarenka finished off the set with two match points. Clijsters hit a backhand wide to end the match in two hours and 12 minutes to end their semifinal match with a final score of 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 in the 22-year-old Belarusian's favor.

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Nadal, Federer to meet in Australian Open semis

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus reacts after winning a point against Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland during their quarterfinal at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Andrew Brownbill)

Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska reacts to a lost point against Victoria Azarenka of Belarus during their quarterfinal at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Enlarge Photo

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus serves to Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland during their quarterfinal at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/John Donegan)

Kim Clijsters of Belgium reacts after winning a point against Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark during their quarterfinal at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Andrew Brownbill)

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Posted: 10:49 p.m. Monday, Jan. 23, 2012

MELBOURNE, Australia — The intensity was vintage Rafael Nadal.

On the stroke of midnight, he thrust his arms up and punched the air, sealing the victory that sets up the most anticipated semifinal at the Australian Open in quite some time.

Roger Federer did his part to put this in place. In the previous match on Rod Laver Arena, he beat 2009 U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 in a quarterfinal marking his 1,000th tour-level match.

A Federer-Nadal semifinal had been looming since the draw for the season's first major — the first time the pair have been in the same half at a Grand Slam tournament since 2005.

Playing with a new racket and a heavily taped right knee, Nadal was at his demonstrative best, rallying after losing the first set to beat Tomas Berdych 6-7 (5), 7-6 (6), 6-4, 6-3.

Yelling "Vamos," disputing line calls, pumping his arms after winning big points and bounding around like a hyperactive kid, Nadal ripped winner after winner against Berdych in a 4-hour, 16-minute display of pure intimidation.

He said he was nervous in the first set — he'd lost in the quarterfinals two straight years — but by the third and fourth sets things had indeed changed.

"The character on court, the way to win the points ... the level is very positive, much, much better than the end of the season," he said. "Semifinals is fantastic result for me."

Federer finished his match with one of his classic, one-handed backhands against Del Potro, one of only two men who have beaten him in a major final. The other is Nadal, who has done it six times.

That lopsided record aside, there's a touch of extra tension this time in this usually cordial rivalry. Nadal had told Spanish reporters during a discussion about player discontent that Federer liked to protect his reputation as a gentleman by saying nothing negative in public and letting others "burn."

Both have since played down the comments. On Tuesday, Federer said it didn't damage their relationship.

"No. No. Honestly, no," he said. "It was here for one day and then gone again. I'm happy about that because it didn't deserve more attention than it did. So for me, it's another great match with Rafa. ... Obviously I'd like to play Rafa because of our great epic match earlier in the finals here a few years ago."

Thursday's match will be the first time they have met at Melbourne Park since Nadal won the 2009 title in five seesawing sets. Nadal collected the trophy from the great Rod Laver after consoling Federer as he sobbed in the background.

"We are talking about a player who has won 16 Grand Slams, and I've won 10," Nadal said. "We have played a lot of matches together, many in very important moments for our careers. So the matches against him are always special, even if we are (ranked) 20 against 25."

One of the women's semifinals is already set up, with defending champion Kim Clijsters showing too much experience in a 6-3, 7-6 (4) win over Caroline Wozniacki, who remains without a major title and will now lose her No. 1 ranking.

Clijsters has a left ankle sprain that requires almost constant treatment, but expects to be fit for the next match against third-seeded Victoria Azarenka, one of the three women who can finish the tournament with the top ranking.

The two others — Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and Maria Sharapova — are in action Wednesday. Kvitova opens play at Rod Laver Arena against Sara Errani of Italy, followed by Sharapova against Ekaterina Makarova in an all-Russian match. No. 56-ranked Makarova is coming off a straight-set win over five-time Australian champion Serena Williams.

Defending men's champion Novak Djokovic has an evening match against No. 5 David Ferrer, who beat Nadal in the quarterfinals last year. Djokovic overtook Nadal and Federer for the No. 1 ranking last year by winning three of the four majors, starting with an Australian Open final win over Andy Murray. Murray takes on No. 24 Kei Nishikori of Japan on Wednesday.

Given the dominance last season of the top four, a Djokovic vs. Murray semifinal seems most likely. In 2009, the competition was considered more of a two-man race.

Federer was aiming to equal Pete Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slam titles and was confident despite entering the Australian Open with the No. 2 ranking.

Nadal had fended off Fernando Verdasco in 5-hour, 14-minute late night semifinal — the longest match at the Australian Open — and said he could barely walk, let alone practice the following day. He'd also had a day less to prepare for the final than Federer did. Still, he became the first Spaniard to win the Australian title.