MELBOURNE, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Australian Open's semifinal matchups have been set on Wednesday, with Roger Federer and Simona Halep still the ones to beat in the tournament.
For Czech player Tomas Berdych, squaring off against 19-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer was always going to be tough, but the 19th seed managed to get off to a great start and broke the Swissman's serve early in the first set.
It didn't take long however, for the world number two to fight back.
Despite the slow start, Federer was able to stay composed and forced the opening set into a tie break.
From that point, the five time Australian Open winner continued the momentum and took the second and third set with spectacular precision and shot selection at the net.
The final score ended 7-6 (7-1), 6-3, 6-4.
"I needed to get my rhythm going because Tomas had that early and that' s why I was under pressure," Federer explained.
"So I just tried to hang around and be a bit more aggressive."
In the day's other men's quarterfinal match, South Korean 21-year-old Hyeon Chung continued his dream run at the tournament by downing American Tennys Sandgren 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3.
The youngster will now play Federer on Friday, and whoever emerges victorious will take their place in the final against the winner of tomorrow's clash between Marin Cilic and Kyle Edmund.
While in the women's bracket, Germany's Angelique Kerber blitzed Madison Keys in straight sets and world number one Simona Halep trounced 6th seed Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 6-2, showing no signs of fatigue after her marathon 22 game match against Lauren Davis earlier in the tournament.
The Romanian will now play Kerber on Friday, with the victor to face the winner of Thursday's tussle between world number two Caroline Wozniacki and emerging star Elise Mertens.
In the women's double bracket, there was heartbreak for cross-straits duo Peng Shuai and Hsieh Su-wei, who missed out on a place in the final, after going down to the European pairing of Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic, 6-4, 6-2.
