Roger Federer surprises the tennis world (and himself) after he reached the Australian Open final. The Swiss legend had a dreadful draw, and he got to the last act of the tournament after he defeated Berdych, an in-form Nishikori, and Stan Wawrinka. Roger was “lucky” that at least Murray crashed out early to play Mischa Zverev instead, but still… it was tough.

The semi-final against Wawrinka was weird. In fact, Roger seemed to be completely in control to win the first two sets against a disoriented opponent. 

Then Roger had a six games amnesia to lose the third set 6-1 and be one break down in the forth. Eventually, Roger broke back the soon after losing his serve (1-1), but Wawrinka was too good to break him again and bring the contests to the decider. 

At that point, Roger took a “mysterious” medical timeout to come back on court and hold the first game of the fifth set at 15. But, from that moment on, Wawrinka had a clear upper hand in the rallies from the baseline and Roger could just use his serve to defend himself till Stan had a sloppy game to be broken at 4-2. From that moment, Federer got back all his confidence to win his next two service games at 15 and love. The Maestro conquered the match 7-5 6-3 1-6 4-6 6-3.

About the medical time-out

Jim Courier teased Federer in the on-court interview about the medical time-out, and Roger confessed

“I’ve had a leg thing all week and felt it earlier in the match. I thought I never take injury timeouts, but Stan had taken his so I thought it would be ok.”

About Winning the fifth set

Roger commented

“It was tough; I thought Stan had the upper hand in the fifth set and was reading my serve well. I knew I had to stay in it, and he gave me a cheap break, but after that, I served it home, and I couldn’t be happier right now.  Everything happened so quickly; I couldn’t quite believe it. It feels amazing. I never thought I’d do so well in Australia.”

About his next opponent

Roger will now play either his nemesis (and good friend) Rafael Nadal or Grigor Dimitrov in the final. The Swiss commented

“Dimitrov has a very complete game; he can mix it up very well and he is very confident right now. I really like his game, really nice playing style and he’s had tough couple of years, so I’m pleased he’s turned it around.

It’s real now. I can actually talk about playing a final for the first time. I’ve been dodging that bullet for the last couple of days. But this is the last one. I’ll leave it all out here in Australia, and if I can’t walk for another five months, that’s ok. Rafa is the biggest challenge. This court allows me to be offensive. I’m probably his number one fan. We’ve had some epic battles over the years. It would be unreal to play here.

I don’t think both of us though we were going to be here potentially playing in the final because I went to open his academy in Mallorca with him a few months back and I told him ‘I wish we could do a charity match or something.’ But I was on one leg, and he had the wrist injury, and we were playing some mini tennis with some juniors, and we were like ‘it’s the best we can do right now.’ A few months later, we are maybe going to be in the finals. It’s a very special tournament for us already.”

Roger is down 11-23 in H2H matches against Rafa while he leads Grigor 5-0. Playing the Bulgarian would be “his choice,” but beating Rafa in the final would be his real dream.

Game on.