Just in time

Johansson wakes up, puts away Novak to reach final

MELBOURNE (Reuters) -- Swede Thomas Johansson fought back from an alarming mid-match slump to beat Czech Jiri Novak 7-6, 0-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 at the Australian Open on Thursday and reach his first grand slam tournament final.

Johansson will play either seventh seed Tommy Haas of Germany or Russian ninth seed Marat Safin in Sunday's championship decider. Haas and Safin meet in the second semifinal on Friday.

Johansson, the 16th seed, threw his racket in the air in delight after he claimed the semifinal on his fourth match point against a tiring Novak, who pushed a forehand wide and long after two hours and 51 minutes on Rod Laver Arena at Melbourne Park.

"This is like a dream come true for me," a delighted Johansson told local television.

The 16th seeded Swede looked likely to fall short after Novak completely dominated the middle stages of the match, Johansson littering the court with 63 unforced errors.

Johansson gradually fought his way back against 26th seed Novak and broke the Czech's serve for only the third time in the match in the final game of the fifth set.

"I was really nervous, I haven't played in the semifinals of a grand slam before and was really tight," Johansson said.

"I was maybe a little bit too relaxed after first set...but for the whole match I was really fighting."

Both playing in a grand slam semifinal for the first time, the two 26-year-olds relied on their strong service games as a foundation while they probed for signs of a weakness in a dour first set.

That pattern continued through the first-set tiebreak, with neither player able to gain an advantage until Novak pushed a forehand just wide. Johansson then hammered a service winner to take the tiebreak 7-5.

But Novak quickly got back on track when he broke Johansson's opening serve in the second game of the second set, the Swede pushing a tentative backhand long for the first break of serve in the match.

Growing in confidence, Novak then broke Johansson's serve twice more in the second set as the Swede's unforced error count grew at a rate of roughly two to Novak's one.

Johansson regrouped early in the third set, rediscovered his serve and drew Novak into long baseline rallies.

But the Swede undid that good work in the 10th game of the third set with more errors and then a double fault to hand Novak three break points. Novak needed only one and claimed the set.

Johansson finally managed to break the Czech's serve for the first time in the fifth game of the fourth set -- only his third break point opportunity of the match -- when he drew Novak into a long baseline rally at 15-40 and punched a forehand winner.

He repeated the feat four games later, pushing the match into a fifth set decider when Novak netted a backhand on Johansson's seventh set point in a game that went to deuce eight times.

Johansson then turned the match firmly in his favour against a tiring Novak at the start of the fifth set and cut down his high error rate.

Neither player had made it past the third round in Melbourne before, with Johansson's two U.S. Open quarter-finals in 1998 and 2000 his previous best grand slam results.

"First of all I have to enjoy this victory then go and try to prepare myself for Sunday, I think I'm going to be really nervous for there, too," Johansson said.

 

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