Federer makes final as injured Chung quits match

RuthlessRoger Federer handed wounded Chung Hyeon an old-fashioned schoolingbefore the overwhelmed South Korean quit with foot blisters trailing 6-15-2 in a damp squib of an Australian Open semi-final yesterday.Federerwas detained for only 62 minutes under the Rod Laver Arena roof as heset up a final against big-serving Croat Marin Cilic who pummelledanother young gun, Kyle Edmund, on Thursday.It is the sixth timeFederer has reached a grand slam final without dropping a set — the mostrecent at Wimbledon last year when he beat an injured Cilic in thefinal.Although happy to conserve energy for Sunday’s final, and evenmake it out in time for a spot of dinner, the 36-year-old defendingchampion said it had been a “bitter sweet” victory.“I must admit,you do take the faster matches whenever you can because there’s enoughwear and tear on the body,” Federer told reporters. “When they happen,you take them.”“I’m just happy I’m in the final, to be honest. Thatwas the goal before the match today. Not under the circumstances I washoping to (reach the final)...“He struggled clearly with his movement. I was able to take advantage of that. I wish him a good recovery.”Itwas an anti-climactic end for Chung, who played superbly to beat fourthseed Alexander Zverev in five sets in round three and even better in astraight sets win over six-times champion Novak Djokovic in the round of16.The 21-year-old was joined by his agent Stuart Duguid in the post-match news conference who explained what had happened.“It’s worse than regular blisters. Over the last few days, it was blister under blister under blister,” he said.“He had it shaved off. Now it’s red raw. They tried injections to see if it numbed the pain. It didn’t work.”“I really hurt. I can’t walk no more,” Chung added.Federeradmitted after his quarter-final victory over Tomas Berdych that heknew little about Chung’s counter-punching game, having never faced himbefore.He had obviously done some homework though as he swarmed allover the world number 58 from the first game, feasting on Chung’s powderpuff serve to break immediately after choosing to receive first havingwon the coin toss.Bashing winners for fun he repeated the trick twice to grab the opening set in 33 minutes.WhenChung held serve for 1-1 in the second set, a huge cheer erupted froman Australia Day crowd who had hoped to witness a classic battle of thegenerations.But Chung, nicknamed ‘the professor’ mainly because ofhis scholarly white spectacles but also because of a maturity beyond hisyears, had no answer to Federer’s firepower.With his movement anddefensive skills — his biggest weapons — compromised he was a sittingduck as Federer racked up 24 winners in the 57 points he required forvictory.Federer broke for 3-1 with a dipping backhand pass and whenChung needed treatment on his foot blisters after losing the next game,his hopes of becoming the first South Korean to reach a grand slam finalalready looked forlorn.