THEY call him the Swiss Master for a reason, but if his win over John Millman from 8-4 down in the super tiebreak was not enough for people to believe in him, then saving seven match points in the quarter finals to come back and win was simply out of this world.

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Roger Federer looked down and out against the 100th ranked Tennys Sandgren yesterday, trailing two sets to one and at one stage, 3-6 in the fourth set tiebreaker. At that point, the plucky American had already had a couple of match points prior to the tiebreak, but had three for the taking – including one on his serve – and would have another couple of chances after that. It was clear that nerves of upsetting one of the world’s greatest players of all-time and booking a spot in the semi-finals of a Grand Slam was getting to him. Sandgren had done all the work to put himself in a position to cause the biggest boilover of the tournament – and that would be quite an achievement considering some of the results. It would not be his day though, with the storyline instead switching to Federer and his remarkable sheer determination, fighting back from seven match points to win the fourth set tiebreak 10-8 and then run away with it 6-3 in the final set for a 6-3 2-6 2-6 7-6 6-3 victory. It took three and a half hours, Federer had only five aces to 27, 44 winners to 73 and 56 unforced errors to 53. He also only broke twice to four times and won less points on serve and when receiving. He lost more points at the net and was quite simply beaten in nearly every facet – except the one on the scoreboard. He might be coming to the end of his career, but you can never count him out of a match and never underestimate his ability to conquer the unthinkable.

Unfortunately for Federer, he runs into his old nemesis in the semi-finals, a red-hot Novak Djokovic. Unlike the Swiss star who has had to have two five-set clashes in the past three matches, Djokovic has not dropped a set since the first round of the competition. He knocked over Canada’s Milos Raonic 6-4 6-3 7-6, a player who was also in good form coming into the match not dropping a set until running into the Serbian machine. To Raonic’s credit, he kept Djokovic on court for almost three hours, a feat no-one else has been able to do for some time. He also forced him into a tiebreaker and saved 14 of 16 break points despite the seven-time Australian Open champion’s best efforts. Raonic’s serving ability and hard-hitting delayed the inevitable, with the Canadian hitting 18 aces and 48 winners – the same number as his unforced errors – while Djokovic hit 29 winners and a remarkably-low 14 unforced errors. He chalked up an 86 per cent first serve points percentage, and won 34 per cent of the points when Raonic was on serve. He only produced the four aces which is below his average, but his best work was done in play where he had to work harder than he had previously. But, like vintage Djokovic he dug deep when he needed to, saved a couple of break points himself and imposed his will on the third set tiebreak to run out a 7-1 winner in that tiebreak and book a spot in the semi-finals to face Federer.

[3] R. Federer (SUI) defeated T. Sandgren (USA) 6-3 2-6 2-6 7-6 6-3
[2] N. Djokovic (SRB) defeated M. Raonic (CAN) 6-4 6-3 7-6