TASS, January 30. Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic has stormed into the 2020 Australian Open final, the first Grand Slam tournament of the tennis calendar, with a straight-set win over Swiss Roger Federer in their semifinal match on Thursday.

The Serbian, 32, grabbed the victory in two hours and 18 minutes of play, 7-6 (7-1), 6-4, 6-3, defeating the Swiss for the 27th time in 50 meetings. The players met in a Grand Slam for the 17th time, with Djokovic now leading Federer with 11 such victories. Djokovic is the defending champion and seed No. 2 of the tournament, while Federer was seeded third.

The Serbian is awaiting the winner of the second semifinal between fifth-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem and Germany’s Alexander Zverev (seed No. 7) scheduled for Friday. Should Djokovic prevail in Sunday’s final and lift his eighth Australian Open trophy, he will return to No. 1 in the ATP rankings, the position is currently occupied by Spaniard Rafael Nadal who failed to defend his last year’s final ranking points and lost to Thiem in the quarterfinals.

Djokovic topped the ATP rankings four times in his career, spending 275 weeks at No. 1 (Federer leads the list with 310 weeks). Federer and Djokovic were year-end No. 1 five times each (US Pete Sampras holds the current record of six such years).

Djokovic is currently sitting at No. 2 in the rankings and has won 77 ATP titles in his career. Djokovic is a 16-time Grand Slam champion winning all four of them at least once. He won the Australian Open seven times (with a perfect record of winning all seven finals that he reached at the tournament), five Wimbledon titles, three US Open titles and the French Open once. Djokovic also won bronze at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Federer is ranked third in the world, he has won 103 ATP tournaments. The Swiss is a 20-time Grand Slam champion, a record-breaking figure for men (Australia’s Margaret Court holds the most titles in the Open Era with 24, while US Serena Williams has the most Grand Slam titles among active players with 23). Federer won the Australian Open six times, the French Open once, Wimbledon eight times and the US Open five times. This year Federer competed at the record-breaking 21st Australian Open.

The Australian Open offers a prize pot of $49.1 million and is taking place in Melbourne from 20 January to 2 February.