World No17 triumphed after three hour, and five-set thriller match with countryman Stan Wawrinka, at Rod Laver Arena.
The 35 year-old Swiss put himself one win away from an eighteenth Grand Slam title, and will play his 28 Grand Slam final.
After defeating Wawrinka 7-5 6-3 1-6 4-6 6-3 Federer is awaiting the winner of Rafael Nadal and Grigor Dimitrov, keeping alive the dream he might meet arch-rival Rafael Nadal in a retro-flavoured final.
Utterly compelling tennis, and thriller match. Two medical time-out’s, first for Wawrinka before the third set began, left the court with a medical trainer, and towel draped over his head, returning with a bandage below his right knee. After losing the set, Federer left the court for his own medical timeout. ‘I’ve had a leg thing going on for a week, I felt it from the second game. I never take injury time outs but Stan had taken his.” said Federer after the match.
Both players were showing signs of fatigue but Federer, to the delight of his fans, saved a break point in the third game, trying to avoid his fifth defeat in 300 best of five set matches from two sets up.
I did feel that he gave me a cheap break and after that I did well to serve it home. He seemed to relax after the second set and I couldn’t serve as well and the next thing you know it’s hard to stop the bleeding.”
