AU Open final. D vs. M

FEW would doubt that had Novak Djokovic trusted the magic in his feet instead of his hands, he would have made a formidable footballer.
Like Andy Murray, the man he may face in tomorrow's final, Djokovic is a dab hand at the round-ball game.

To watch the Serbian against Roger Federer was to witness a man never off balance. His is the perfect axis. A couple of steps back, a mad dash sideways, a skip back to the middle, his balance seemingly always centred come his time to strike the ball.

Before their semi-final clash, former US Open semi-finalist Wally Masur warned that the hardest thing Federer faced was finding a way to hit through Djokovic, so outstanding is the world No 3's court coverage.

It was a point noted by Lleyton Hewitt after the pair played at the Hopman Cup to start January.

It was also something Federer acknowledged as a key reason for his straight-sets loss on Thursday night.

全豪オープンテニス（Australian Open Tennis Tournament 2011）男子準決勝第1試合は27日、第3シードのノバク・ジョコビッチ（Novak Djokovic、セルビア）が第2シードのロジャー・フェデラー（Roger Federer、スイス）をストレートで下し、決勝に進出した。

　タイブレークまでもつれ込んだ第1セットを制したジョコビッチは、4大大会優勝16回を誇るフェデラー相手に第2、第3セットを7-5、6-4と連取。決勝では28日行われる準決勝第2試合のアンディ・マレー（Andy Murray、英国）対ダビド・フェレール（David Ferrer、スペイン）の勝者と対戦する。

　4台大会の決勝戦にフェデラー、ラファエル・ナダル（Rafael Nadal、スペイン）の2人がともに出場しないのは、実に3年ぶり。(c)AFP