|
MELBOURNE, Jan. 28-- Roger Federer scraped through to an Australian Open semifinal matchup with Novak Djokovic, while Sofia Kenin and Australia's Ashleigh Barty also booked their places in the final four on day 9 of competition. Federer survived seven match points against unseeded American Tennys Sandgren 6-3, 2-6, 2-6, 7-6 (8), 6-3, with the Swiss master proving once again that he has multiple lives at this tournament. In the previous round, Federer won six consecutive points to claim a match tiebreak against Australia's John Millman, and showed similar survival skills to walk away victorious once again. "I think I got incredibly lucky today," Federer said in a post-match interview. "I was just hoping that maybe he wasn't going to smash a winner. If he misses one or two match points, who knows what's going to happen?" Federer will be joined by defending champion Djokovic, who beat Canada's Milos Raonic 6-4, 6-3, 7-6. It will be the 50th meeting for the two greats, with Djokovic winning 26 of their past encounters compared to Federer's 23. Meanwhile, Barty beat Czech player Petra Kvitova, 7-6 (6), 6-2, while Kenin brought an end to Tunisian Ons Jabeur's historic run, winning 6-4, 6-4. Jabeur is the first Arab woman to reach the quarterfinals of a major singles tournament, beating former Australian Open winner Caroline Wozniacki and China's Wang Qiang in so doing. | 
