Shock exit for Roger Federer

Novak Djokovic says his place in Sunday's Australian Open 2008 men's singles final is just reward for the hard work he has put in over the past 18 months.

The 20-year-old Serbian claimed the biggest win of his flourishing career on Day 12 at Melbourne Park, maintaining his record of winning each of his matches in straight sets with a 7-5 6-3 7-6 (7-5) win over world No.1 Roger Federer.

But while he was still pinching himself afterwards, having recorded just his second win in seven career meetings against the two-time defending champion, Djokovic was delighted with his reward.

"Well, honestly, everything is going so fast for me," he said. "As I was saying, if you tell me at the start of last year that I will play four consecutive semi-finals in Grand Slams and two finals, I would accept it right away."

"That's no doubt. So I can say that it's a little bit surprising. But, again, I've been working very hard in the past year-and-a-half, so it's paying off right now."

Djokovic dominated from the middle stages of the first set through to the same point of the second, claiming the first and setting himself up to do likewise in the second by winning five games in succession and nine out of 10.

And apart from the actual result itself, he added that perhaps the most pleasing aspect was that he had been able to withstand a strong Federer challenge in the third set before prevailing to set up his Sunday clash with unseeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

"Well, yes, that was one of the positive facts, I think, in tonight's match, I was able to deal with the pressure in the best possible way," Djokovic added. "And if you do that against the best player in the world, you know, you should get the positive outcome, which resulted of course with the win tonight."

"I'm very happy that in crucial moments my serve was serving me, and it was probably my best element in the game tonight in the important moments. So it is a positive thing for the future."

When Federer served for the first set at 5-3 many observers may have felt that he was well on the way to his fifth Melbourne Park final in six years but his 19-match winning streak at the year's first Grand Slam was ended as Djokovic maintained his faith.

"I was just trying to keep the momentum, you know, just keep it going, not to think about the circumstances, you know, I was a break down, I'm already looking at the second set," he said.

"No, I was trying to really focus and play basically every point every game. And only in that way, you know, I was able to win in the straight sets."

Having said immediately after defeating Federer that he felt like he not only had to beat the player on the other side of the net but also the crowd, Djokovic is hoping for a little more support against Tsonga.

"Today it was quite difficult for me," he said. "It's understandable crowd was a little bit more for him, because he's defending champion and No.1 player of the world. But hopefully it's going to be better in the next match. That's what I hope for."

"But as a finalist and as a pretty much experienced player I've been through a lot of situations like this, so this is another big experience for me, playing in front of a full house. You can't have always a crowd behind you. So we'll see what happens on Sunday."

With Tsonga set to light up Rod Laver arena one more time for this event on Sunday, Djokovic may again be forced to play the villain if he is to claim his maiden Grand Slam title but one gets the feeling he will have no problems dealing with that if necessary.