Roger Federer (Photo : Getty Images)
Roger Federer will meet his compatriot Stan Wawrinka in the semifinal round of the Australian Open 2017 at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne on Thursday.
Federer's sudden revival in the tennis scene has seen him in position to reach the final round of the Australian Open. The Swiss Maestro, who reached the tournament's semifinals for the 13th time in 14 years, defeated Germany's Mischa Zverev in the QF round, 6-1 7-5 6-2 in match that lasted 92 minutes on Tuesday night.
Federer, who decided to skip the remainder of the Tour after re-injuring his surgically-repaired knee at Wimbledon last year, hit 65 winners to neutralize Zverev's serve-and-volley game, which helped the German in upsetting world No. 1 Andy Murray in the fourth round. Federer's game has overcome doubters about him playing at a high level again, but it may be a difficult task to get over Wawrinka, who beat French Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-7(4) 6-2 6-4 6-4, to advance into the last-four stage.
"If someone would have told me I'd play in the semis against Stan, never would I have called that," Federer said, reports the ATP's official website.
"I honestly didn't even know a few days ago that he was in my section of the draw or I'm in his section. I figured it out eventually that he was playing on my days, but I never really looked in that quarter of the draw because that was just too unrealistic for me."
Federer leads Wawrinka by a staggering 18-3 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head career matchups. But due to the former's recent injuries and setbacks, it has been a while since they played against each other, making the world No. 4 possibly too much of a hurdle for Federer's goal of adding an 18th major title.
Winning against Wawrinka would give Federer a chance for an epic dream final match against career rival Rafael Nadal, who mastered Canada's Milos Raonic in their semifinal clash, 6-3 6-3 4-6 6-4 and booked a semifinal date against Grigor Dimitrov.
Live streaming info and score updates
Watch Australian Open 2017 Roger Federer vs Stan Wawrinka live via AusOpen.com or Watch ESPN. Live scores will be available during game days at the Australian Open's official website.
