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Novak Djokovic has reached his fourthAustralian Open final in the past five years with a five-set victory over Stan Wawrinka, the man who dumped him out of Melbourne Park in 2014.
Wawrinka had downed Djokovic 9-7 in the fifth set when the pair met in the quarter-finals in Melbourne en route to breaking the stranglehold of tennis’ Big Four in 2014 but the Serb prevailed Friday 7-6 (1) 3-6 6-4 4-6 6-0 this time.
During a courtside interview, Djokovic said, “As it was the case in the last two years we played five sets and I was ready for the battle.
“We pushed each other to the limit. Stan is a quality player. He made my life very complicated on the court.”
Wawrinka, however, could not explain his feelings after the match.
“Describe the match? Strange. Not the best, for sure,” said Wawrinka, who fell to 1-17 against top-ranked players.
The world number one faces old friend, Andy Murray, on Sunday, with the Briton looking to win his first Melbourne Park title in his fourth final.
“Andy and I go back to when we were 12 years old, that’s when we first played each other,” Djokovic said.
“We’ve known each other a long time, it’s nice to play another grand slam final against him.”
Djokovic is unbeaten in finals at Melbourne Park, claiming his first Grand Slam title there in 2008 and winning three straight years from 2011 before his run was ended in the 2014 quarter-finals by Wawrinka.
Djokovic has equaled the record shared by Roger Federer and Stefan Edberg for most Australian finals in the Open era. He has won all four of his previous finals, including two against Murray.
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