Agencies
Melbourne, January 30
Top seed Novak Djokovic defeated defending champion Stan Wawrinka in five sets to set up a meeting with Andy Murray in Sunday’s Australian Open final.
The pair clashed for the third year running, but it failed to live up to the five-set marathons at Melbourne Park in 2013 and 2014 with a tension-filled clash going the way of the Serb 7-6 (7-1) 3-6 6-4 4-6 6-0.
Djokovic now has the chance to become just the second man to win more than four Australian Open titles - Roy Emerson won six between 1961 and 1967.Djokovic took his foot off the accelerator allowing Wawrinka to break serve in the seventh game, but the Serb quickly found his form to hit back in the very next game by breaking to love.
In the tie-break, Djokovic upped his tempo with his more accurate groundstrokes proving too good for Wawrinka to run away with it 7-1.
Both players were struggling to find any rhythm on the blue hardcourt of Rod Laver Arena, although it was the defending champion who took full advantage by making the breakthrough in the sixth game of the second set before comfortably holding serve to level it up.
Four-time Melbourne champion Djokovic hit a rich vein of form at the start of the next set and raced through the first three games, but the Swiss fourth seed struck back to break and restore parity.
However, the 29-year-old Wawrinka succumbed to his opponent whilst serving to stay in the set at 5-4 to hand the seven-time Grand Slam champion the initiative and move one set away from another major final.
The Serb looked to be on his way after breaking in the opening game of the fourth, but Wawrinka hadn’t read the script and struck back by breaking twice to take the clash into a fifth set for a third year in a row.
But, the decider proved to be very one-sided with Djokovic sealing a rare ‘bagel’ set against a deflated Wawrinka to reach his fifth Melbourne final.
Wawrinka has now lost 16 of his last 17 matches with Djokovic, and the Serb will now be aiming to land his eighth Grand Slam crown on Sunday.
Murray lost to Djokovic in the final in 2011 and 2013 and is looking to become the first man in the open era to win the title after losing three finals. His other defeat came to Roger Federer in 2010.
