128 men entered a room. Come Sunday, one will emerge the Australian Open 2018 Champion. A shocking retirement of Hyeon Chung sees our favourite and GOAT Roger Federer through to his potential 20th grand slam.

Both my semi-final predictions have proven accurate.

1st Semi Final

Marin Cilic’s straights sets semi-final was played on Thursday 25 January 2018. Ultimately, experience prevailed with Cilic’s years of seasoning helping him to steady himself in what was no doubt a highlight for Kyle Edmund. Both players had their lapses in concentration, w with errors being fairly evenly shared between both Marin and Kyle. The first set was decided in over half an hour, with Marin controlling the play. After the first set Kyle took a medical time-out. It was in the second set, fifth game when some drama unfolded.

Cilic served to start the game and the line judge called the ball out. Kyle hit a return at the same precise moment and sent it wide off court. Marin also appealed for a Hawk-Eye challenge on the original call and ended up being awarded the point. When Kyle disputed this, and did not find sympathy with the umpire, he demanded to see the tournament referee. Unfortunately, the referee did not overrule the situation but the frustration clearly helped to fuel a comeback and improvement in the game of the Briton. Unfortunately, Cilic continued to hold the upper hand and prevailed in the tie-breaker.

The final score after 140 minutes was 6-2 7-6 6-2. Whilst the Croatian progresses into the 2018 Men’s Final against Federer, Kyle not only leaves the tournament a semi-finalist, but sporting an injury.

 

2nd Semi Final

 

On the one side of court stands the greatest player of all time, Roger Federer. A crowd favourite year after year. The Swiss maestro who, at the age of 36 has found a second wind, so to speak, in the 2017-2018 return to success. Although he is merely the second seed, to Roger, rankings do not matter so much. Not so much as aiming to win. On the other side of court is challenger and newcomer in 21-year-old Korean Hyeon Chung. Having bested the likes of Novak Djokovic, Alex Zerev and reached the semi-final, a lot of attention was flowing the way of Hyeon.

Winning the toss, Federer made the decision to receive instead of start serving the match, and thus pressure was placed on the young Korean contender to hold serve. Unfortunately, unlike the more consistent and predictable playing style of Novak, Roger constantly had the Korean guessing, and as Federer moved to dominate play, each point had short rallies. Although Hyeon had a better first serve percentage, Federer really capitalised on his second serve, moving forward in the court to apply even more pressure on Hyeon. With the breaks secured, Roger closed out the set on Hyeon’s serve, breaking him to go up in an effortless 6-1.

In the second set, Roger sensed his opponent was struggling, and it only became clear with the medical treatment received curtsied between the sets that the Korean had blisters on his foot. Roger was gentlemanly in understanding the pain of suffering blisters and as the match abruptly came to a conclusion where Chung retired during the second set, Roger characterised his win as bittersweet.

The final score reached before Chung retired:  6-1 5-2.