Roger Federer targets Wimbledon after Australian Open win

“It’s never easy to lose a match like that”, Dimitrov told reporters, adding Nadal “deserves pretty much all the credit right now since he’s such a fighter”. For me, it is unbelievable to be through to a final of a Grand Slam again here in Australia at the start of the year.

The Williams sisters are close. Serena has won 22 titles, while Venus has won seven. She didn’t reach another Australian final for 14 years.

Federer spoke highly of Nadal and their battle, saying that he would have been happy had the result gone either way.

“I have been dodging that bullet for the last few days now talking about the next round and the next round but this is the last one”. She has a pretty good record against me, and we have a good record against each other. Finally was me. I feel lucky.

“I’m sure I’m going to look back on that match, I’m going to see what I could have done better, (but) that’s also built up an experience”, Dimitrov said. I enjoyed it a lot. “This is a lovely thing”. I hope to come back here. And she only made it back to the semifinals past year at Wimbledon.

The former Indian skipper was extremely confident about the Indian team’s abilities but warned the “Men in Blue” to not underestimate Australia, who were whitewashed 3-0 by Sri Lanka in their last Test series in the subcontinent. I’ve never missed it since ’98, since the juniors and then qualifying in ’99. Novak Djokovic and Roy Emerson lead the pack with six Australian titles. “It will be different to play in Indian conditions and Australian players have also acknowledged that, which is a compliment to the Indian team and the way they have been playing”. As Jimmy Connors once said, “give them what they want”.

Federer and Nadal haven’t faced each other in a Grand Slam final since the 2011 French Open, where Nadal beat Federer in four sets.

At game point, a second serve was returned but a next routine backhand was netted by Federer.

Somewhat out of nowhere, Dimitrov broke to love in the fourth game of the second set, during which Nadal was given a time violation by chair umpire Pascal Maria. “I worked very hard to be here”.

“The rules are there so that you can use them. It’s been an awesome thing, your win has always been my win”. “Here we stand in the finals”.

Roger Federer, after winning his fifth Australian Open title defeating Rafael Nadal, defended the medical time-out he availed after the fourth set stating that he took time off the court since the guidelines permitted him to.

The 30-year-old Spaniard has been out of the Grand Slam limelight since his last title success at Roland Garros in 2014, as injuries sidetracked his glorious career. It did a little bit potentially. It had Jordan’s usual jersey number No. 23 stamped on the heel, helping to provide some synchronicity for the numbers involved.