World order has changed. Both the top seeds are out of Australian Open 2011. Novak Djokovic has defeated Roger Federer in straight sets 7-6, 7-5, 6-4 in the first Semi-Final. Federer could not play his best. One of the indicators of Federer’s mind is the quality of his serve. This has nothing to do with the opponent since it is the first shot in a point. Federer served only 5 aces in the three long sets played. Djokovic did not allow Federer to stay long in the ground rallies. He was hitting with lot of power and lot of top spin to remain in the rally in an aggressive way. He was not giving short balls to let Federer come into the fore court. Once Federer started getting frustrated, racquet frame started coming into play. He did play many winners and constructed his points beautifully, but such points were not the order of the day. In crunch situations, Djokovic went to Federer’s backhand which repeatedly broke down after a few exchanges. Djokovic had no weaknesses today either on forehand or backhand. He served himself out of trouble on a number of occasions, something what we have repeatedly seen from Federer during his prime days. He was returning most of Federer’s serves to keep the ball in play and gaining upper hand slowly in the rally. On quite a few occasions, it was Federer who was impatient to end the rally. In his prime, his shots would go near the lines for winner, but today many were going beyond the lines. Djokovic kept his composure on important points and did not falter even when Federer raised his level of play. The outcome truly reflected who was the better player on the day. In a long time, Federer would not be holding any of the four Grand Slam major titles.
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