Roger Federer weathered the ‘Birdman’ storm to march into the semi-finals of the Australian Open.
Berdych came out all guns blazing, breaking Federer early in the 1st set and striking the ball cleanly to put Federer off his game.
Federer though, hung on, battling it hard with Berdych and ultimately breaking Berdych back to bring back parity in this ultra-competitive match.
Federer breezed through the tie-break and carried on that form in the 2nd and the 3rd set to shut off the stiff Berdych challenge.
In the on-court interview that followed, Federer was in a jovial mood, discussing his semi-final opponent Chung and also talking about setting up the Laver cup in honour of the great Rod Laver.
Courier obviously asked him about his doubles pairing with Nadal and how the entire experience of playing with Rafa was.
Roger spoke fondly about sharing the court with Rafa and how he learned a lot from the experience.
With the talk circling around the Laver Cup and Rafa, Courier very cheekily slipped in a question about Rafa donning the sleeveless tank again at the Australian Open and if Federer would ever wear that on a Tennis court.
“That’s never going to happen because you know why. My arms are not like his arms!” said Federer, much to the delight of the crowd.
Federer then went down memory lane after this question, to a time when he had actually tried on those capris, much to the surprise of ever player(and support staff) on the practice courts.
Seeing their response Federer had decided that he was not cut out for the capris, and decided against it.
Federer then also spoke about Rafa’s injury and the fact that he texted him last night in order to enquire about his condition.
“I hope Rafa gets well soon, I’m so happy to hear the news that the injury isn’t serious. The last thing I did before going to bed last night was texting Rafa.” Federer said.
Check out the video:
Federer will now take on Chung in the semi-final on Friday, vying to win his 20th Grand Slam title on Sunday.
