Chung achieves Korean Slam high

Chung achieves Korean Slam high
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Highlights

Defending champion Roger Federer argued with an umpire but mostly let his racket do the talking as he beat Tomas Berdych for the ninth time running to reach the Australian Open semi-finals on Wednesday.

Melbourne: Defending champion Roger Federer argued with an umpire but mostly let his racket do the talking as he beat Tomas Berdych for the ninth time running to reach the Australian Open semi-finals on Wednesday.

Despite the 7-6(1), 6-3, 6-4 scoreline, it was not all smooth sailing against the burly Czech for the 36-year-old Federer as he arrived in the last four of a grand slam for the 43rd time -- and the 11th time without dropping a set.

Federer trailed early on, but 19th seed Berdych faltered when serving for the first set at 5-3 when Federer was infuriated by the malfunction of the Hawkeye video replay.

Berdych had one set point which Federer saved with a sweetly-struck backhand and another backhand went past him to give the Swiss the break back.

Chung Hyeon's trailblazing run through the Australian Open continued on Wednesday as the South Korean tossed American Tennys Sandgren aside 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-3 to become his nation's first Grand Slam semi-finalist.

Bespectacled like Clark Kent but playing like Superman at a sunbathed Rod Laver Arena, world number 58 Chung became the lowest ranked player into the last four at Melbourne Park since Marat Safin in 2004.

The 21-year-old wobbled when serving out the match, squandering a 40-0 lead and seeing a total of five match points disappear into a cloudless sky as world number 97 Sandgren battled gamely. But his raw power ultimately prevailed, a blazing forehand into the corner causing a scrambling Sandgren to push his desperate retrieve well past the baseline.

Top seed Simona Halep recovered from a slow start before racing away to a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Czech sixth seed Karolina Pliskova in their Australian Open quarter-final on Wednesday.

The 26-year-old Romanian world number one, still without a Grand Slam title, trailed 0-3 but battened down the hatches to reel off the next nine games on her way to a first Melbourne semi-final.

The Romanian advanced to face 2016 champion Angelique Kerber in the semi-finals after the German crushed American Madison Keys earlier on Wednesday.

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