Federer faces Djokovic after seeing off Wawrinka
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Roger Federer edged closer to a showdown with Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 win over Stanislas Wawrinka yesterday in an all-Swiss quarterfinal.
Defending champion Federer faced just one break point, winning all 13 of his service games, and polished off his Beijing Olympics doubles gold medalist teammate in 1 hour, 47 minutes.
"When it's clicking it's really a good feeling, and I don't ask too many questions," Federer said of his dominant serve.
All facets of Federer's game were working yesterday as he advanced to a semifinal against Novak Djokovic, who beat him here in 2008 en route to the Australian Open title.
No. 3-ranked Djokovic overpowered Tomas Berdych 6-1, 7-6 (5), 6-1 in a night match at Rod Laver Arena.
"I was tying to change the pace, put him out of the comfort zone," Djokovic said.
"When he is in his comfort zone, he is a very difficult player, hits very strong, he has powerful strokes, powerful serve. So I needed to put some variety in the game."
He's liking his chances in the semifinals. "If I continue playing like this, I think I have a good chance," Djokovic said. "But in the next match I have Federer. We all know he is the best player ever, so we all know it is going to be tough."
Still in the realm of probability for the defending champion Federer is a final against top-ranked Nadal and a chance to prevent the Spanish lefthander from winning his fourth consecutive grand slam. No man has held all four major titles since Rod Laver in 1969.
Nadal plays fellow Spaniard David Ferrer in one quarterfinal today, while Andy Murray takes on Alexandr Dolgopolov in the other.
Federer is not looking ahead to Nadal just yet. "It's normal to follow Rafa in a big way because he's going for something particularly very special," Federer said.
"My focus is not playing him in the finals quite yet. He still has to win a few matches against really tough players ahead of him. I got my hands full ... I'm not quite there."
Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki was under intense pressure early against French Open champion Francesca Schiavione before beating the Italian veteran 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Wozniacki rallied from a set and a break down to beat Schiavone and ensure she'd maintain the No. 1 ranking after this tournament. The Italian dominated the opening set and a half before the effects of her previous match kicked in. She beat Svetlana Kuznetsova in a three-set match lasting 4 hours, 44 minutes, a record for a women's grand slam match.
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