SEVEN-time Australian Open winner, Novak Djokovic is one win away from taking home title number eight after dispatching third seed, Roger Federer in straight sets. In the pair’s 50th battle during their entertaining history, it was the in-form Serbian who took home the chocolates – as expected – having not dropped a set in the tournament since the first round. In contrast, Federer had battled through a couple of games to come back and win, including an 8-4 deficit in the fifth set super tiebreak against John Millman, and conceding seven match points against Tennys Sandgren.

It was not the smoothest of sailings from Djokovic during the match, winning 7-6 6-4 6-3 in two hours and 18 minutes, but it was good enough to book a spot in yet another Melbourne Park final. Whilst Federer had come in as the underdog, he more than showed he was up for the challenge against his rival, serving eight aces and hitting 26 winners to 10, while breaking twice. Lucky for the world number two, he also broke twice, and only hit 11 unforced errors to Federer’s 19. At one stage, Federer led by as much as 4-1, and was serving for the first set at 5-3, before the Serbian star stepped it up to stunningly break him to love – something that also occurred for Federer in the first set against Millman. Back even, Djokovic dominated the tiebreaker, winning it 7-1 with three winners to one and no unforced errors.

The second set went without any particular shocks, until Djokovic made his move at 5-4 up. In the tenth game, he fought back a game point to the Swiss star to hit a winner on the final point of the set, breaking his nemesis and taking a two-set lead, 7-6 6-4. In the set, Djokovic’s unbelievable serving ability stepped up a notch with a whopping 13 of 15 first serve points going the way of the Serbian, while an equally impressive seven of nine second serve points also went his way. Dropping just the four points on serve, he looked the goods throughout the set, with Federer winning 71 per cent of his first serve points and only 40 per cent of his second serve points. The world number two also hit nine winners to only four unforced errors – three of which were directly off the return in a bid to force Federer’s hand.

In a similar storyline to the second set, it only took one break from the Serbian to lock up the match given his almost unbreakable serve from the second set onwards. He took his chance in the sixth game to move on to 4-2 up, and while Federer pushed hard to break back over the next two Djokovic service games, could not do it and an unforced error on the last point decided the match and handed the world number two a spot in the final. Djokovic only dropped eight points on serve in the third set, producing six aces to Federer’s three, and putting in 82 per cent of his first serves compared to the Swiss star’s 63 per cent. Both players hit 12 winners, with half the unforced errors to the champion.

For the entire match, Djokovic served at an efficiency rate of 73 to 65 per cent, winning 73 per cent of his first serve points and 54 per cent of his second serve points. He hit 15 less winners (31-46), but also had a ridiculous 18 unforced errors for the entire match, keeping it tight as Federer produced 35 unforced errors. He broke four times to Federer’s twice, but was not broken after the first set. He also won 39 per cent of his receiving points and generally looked borderline unbeatable on his way to yet another Grand Slam final and an almost certain Australian Open eighth title.