MELBOURNE, January 30, 2020

Defending champion Novak Djokovic has reached the Australian Open final for the eighth time by beating Roger Federer 7-6(1), 6-4, 6-3 in Thursday’s semi-final on Rod Laver Arena.

Once the Serbian eased through a first-set tie-break, he took total control of the pair’s 50th career meeting to prevail after two hours and 18 minutes.

🇷🇸 U-N-S-T-O-P-P-A-B-L-E 🇷🇸@DjokerNole def. Roger Federer for the 27th time 7-6(1) 6-4 6-3 to earn the chance to play for his 8️⃣th #AusOpen title 🏆#AO2020 pic.twitter.com/Hy7lu8AIHo

— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 30, 2020

“It could have definitely gone a different way. He started really well and I was pretty nervous,” said Djokovic during his on court interview. The 32-year-old from Belgrade sent down 11 aces and won 73 per cent of his first-service points.

“Respect to Roger for coming out tonight. He was obviously hurt. He wasn’t even close to his best in terms of movement, and respect for coming out and trying his best throughout. 

“It wasn’t the right mindset from my side. I was looking more at how he was moving, what he was doing, rather than executing my shots in the right way. It resulted being 1-4, 0-40 down. I managed to dig my way back and it was very important to win that first set. After that I relaxed a bit mentally and could swing through the ball a bit more.” 

Djokvovic will next compete in his 26th Grand Slam title match overall, where he will play for the 17th major trophy of his career. The No. 2 seed, who has claimed sole ownership of the all-time record for most Australian Open finals, will face the winner of the encounter between Alexander Zverev of Germany and Austria’s Dominic Thiem.