MELBOURNE (Australia): Swiss legend Roger Federer said he was lucky to advance into the Australian Open semifinals here on Tuesday.
Federer pulled off one of the greatest escapes of his career by saving seven match points to beat Tennys Sandgren for a place in the semis.
The 38-year-old, who became the oldest man in 43 years to make the last four at Melbourne Park after Ken Rosewall, won 6-3, 2-6, 2-6, 7-6 (10/8), 6-3.
“I don’t deserve this one, but I’m standing here and obviously very happy,” said Federer. “I just said (to myself while losing), I believe in miracles.”
The six-time champion’s will meet either Novak Djokovic or big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic.
“I got incredibly lucky tonight, today — I don’t even know what time it is,” he added.
The victory was his 102nd at Melbourne Park, surpassing his tally at Wimbledon to make the Australian Open his most successful Slam in terms of matches won.
Federer said he felt groin injury midway through the second set and was “upset about the pain I was feeling”, but is hopeful it is not serious.
“Hopefully, we’ll find out that it’s actually nothing bad, that it was just the groin that went really tight from playing a lot, who knows what, from nerves,” he said, having now played 14 sets in his last three matches,” said one the living legends in modern tennis.
In two decades of playing the Australian Open, he had never lost to a player ranked as low as Sandgren’s 100, with his biggest upset coming against 54th-ranked Arnaud Clement way back in 2000.
The unheralded American had shown he could be a danger to the 20-time Grand Slam winner, having already beaten eighth seed Matteo Berrettini and 12th seed Fabio Fognini.
And he gave the Swiss star a massive scare.
