Reuters
Brisbane, Jan 9: Swiss maestro Roger Federer reached his third successive Brisbane International final here Saturday when he crushed Dominic Thiem in a lop-sided semifinal. Federer took just 60 minutes to down the eighth-seeded Austrian 6-1, 6-4 and said afterwards it was the best he had played all week. He will meet Milos Raonic in a rematch of last year’s final. The Canadian hit 13 aces en route to his 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5) victory over local boy Bernard Tomic.
“I’m getting used to conditions, which is usually the case after a couple of matches,” Federer said after his tie. “You understand the speeds more and you’re more comfortable. I was very pleased with how I played, I was very consistent.”
The first set lasted just 22 minutes as a shell-shocked Thiem struggled to match the 17-time Grand Slam champion on the Pat Rafter Arena. Thiem, 22, settled into the match in the second set and took the fight to his 34-year-old opponent, but a lapse in the seventh game saw him drop his serve and Federer easily held on to book a place in the final.
Talking about the final against Raonic, the affable Swiss said: “I played some tough matches (against him) in the last 16 months or so. I thought he played really well against me here last year. So I have to be careful and he has a huge serve.”
Against Raonic, the quickly-improving Tomic had his chances and had four break points in the fifth game of the first set. But Raonic served his way out of danger and neither man was troubled on his own serve thereafter.
With such a huge serve Raonic was always favoured in the tie-breaks and he opened a 5-1 lead on both occasions. Tomic fought back to 5-5 twice but in the end Raonic closed out the match with a lunging backhand volley.
Raonic pushed Federer in three close sets in 2015 and although he said he was playing better now than 12 months ago, he conceded facing the Swiss great was always difficult. “He can do a lot of things differently,” Raonic said. “He forces you to alter his plans.”
Meanwhile in the women’s singles final Victoria Azarenka sounded warning bells for her opponents with a 6-3, 6-1 demolition of Angelique Kerber. It was her first title since she triumphed at the Cincinnati Open in 2013. “I was not dying to win titles… I love playing well,” said Azarenka. “But then these sort of wins give you that extra motivation to work hard… aim higher.”