Federer overcomes Wawrinka to reach final

Roger Federer is through to the final of the Australian Open for the first time in seven years after a 7-5 6-3 1-6 4-6 6-3 win over Stanislas Wawrinka.

Federer missed the second half of 2016 due to a knee injury but he has continue to defy expectations at Melbourne Park and a huge roar went up at the Rod Laver Arena as he become the oldest player to reach a Grand Slam final since Ken Rosewall made the 1974 US Open final at the age of 39.

"I never, ever in my wildest dream felt I was going to be coming this far in Australia and here I am. It's beautiful. I'm so happy," Federer said.

Seeded 17th, Federer started the brighter of the two and had three break points early in the first set but he had to wait until the 12th game to final take Wawrinka's serve and with it the set.

Wawrinka's frustration began to grow when he was broken for a second time in the fifth game of the second set to hand the initiative to Federer, who took full advantage to move into a 2-0 lead.

A medical time out saw Wawrinka leave the court for treatment at the end of the set and the break appeared to work for the 2014 Australian Open Champion as he raced through the third set in just 26 minutes, before breaking Federer in the ninth game of the fourth to take the match into a fifth set.

It was Federer's turn to seek medical treatment and this time it was the 17-time Grand Slam champion who benefitted from the time out, breaking in the sixth game when Wawrinka double-faulted.

Having squandered a two-set lead, Federer was not in the mood to let his advantage slip for a second time and he held to move within one of the final.

After Wawrinka held, Federer's fate was in his own hands and he served out to love to complete a memorable victory.

"Thank God. I thought he relaxed and I couldn’t’ serve as well I did. He let it go and it worked for him. It was hard to stop the bleeding and I was playing tight. Stan was playing nothing to lose. It was very tricky,” he explained.

“I’ve had a leg thing going on for the week and I felt it from the second game. I don’t know. I don’t really take injury timeouts, but Stan already took his so I thought people won’t be mad and Stan won’t be mad. That physio, he has magic hands. If you go off the court, that means the treatment is ... further ... up ... the ... leg.”

The Swiss could face Rafael Nadal in Sunday's final if the Spaniard overcomes Grigor Dimitrov in the other semi-final and he admits it would be a dream to take on his old rival.

“It’s real now," Federer said when asked about the possibility of playing Nadal. "I can actually talking about playing finals for the first time. I’ve been dodging that bullet for the last couple of days. But this is the last one.

"I’ll leave it all out here in Australia and if I can’t walk for another five months, that’s ok.

"Rafa is the biggest challenge. This court allows me to be offensive. I’m probably his number one fan. We’ve had some epic battles over the years. It would be unreal to play here.

"I don’t think both of us thought we were going to be here potentially playing in the final because I went to open his academy in Mallorca with him a few months back and I told him ‘I wish we could do a charity match or something’, but I was on one leg and he had the wrist injury and we were playing some mini tennis with some juniors and we were like ‘it’s the best we can do right now’.

"A few months later, we are maybe going to be in the finals. It’s a very special tournament for us already.”

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