{"id":740,"date":"2014-01-22T16:41:08","date_gmt":"2014-01-22T16:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/?p=740"},"modified":"2014-01-22T16:41:08","modified_gmt":"2014-01-22T16:41:08","slug":"federer-sets-to-face-world-number-one-nadal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/tennis\/federer-sets-to-face-world-number-one-nadal\/","title":{"rendered":"Federer sets to face world number one Nadal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four-time champion Roger Federer ended Andy Murray’s Australian Open hopes with a dramatic win in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n

The Swiss, 32, won 6-3 6-4 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 in three hours and 20 minutes to set up a semi-final against world number one Rafael Nadal.<\/p>\n

Federer had been on the verge of wrapping up a faultless three-set performance but failed to serve out the match, and then missed two match points in the tie-break.<\/p>\n

\n

Murray was fighting to stay alive in only his second tournament since back surgery, and saved six break points in a marathon 19-minute game early in the fourth set.<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

But the Scot was constantly playing catch-up and eventually he could no longer hang on, as Federer brought his man into the net at 4-3 and flipped a backhand past the 26-year-old for the decisive break.<\/p>\n

“I was proud of the way I fought,” said Murray.<\/p>\n

“I changed my tactics a little bit, started playing a little bit more aggressive, and that was maybe my undoing a little bit at the end, because I really started going for my shots to get myself back into the match.<\/p>\n

Federer was relieved to come through to clinch an 11th consecutive Australian Open semi-final place.<\/p>\n

“Andy played well and put the pressure on me so I’m happy to get the win,” he said.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Four-time champion Roger Federer ended Andy Murray’s Australian Open hopes with a dramatic win in the quarter-finals. The Swiss, 32, won 6-3 6-4 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 in three hours and 20 minutes to set up a semi-final against world number one Rafael Nadal. Federer had been on the verge of wrapping up a faultless three-set […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":742,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740\/revisions\/742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}