For a split second, it seemed like Roger Federer's reign of dominance might end Sunday.

Up 10-9 in the third set tiebreaker and holding his second match point, he drew his foe Andy Murray into the net with a drop shot and moved over to cover the line as the quick Scot sprinted forward. His brain briefly screamed 'hit the volley,' but instead, he let the ball whiz past him and watched it fall in the corner.

"I thought, 'Oh no, I'm going to see myself in the fifth set and not winning the title,' " said Federer, who slapped himself on the forehead. "I'm thinking, 'My God, he just grabbed the trophy out of my hands. I might end up losing this thing.' "  But, Federer doesn't lose matches like that. Five points later after Murray buried a backhand into the net, Federer came away with a 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (11) victory for his fourth Australian title and his record 16th major title overall.

The longtime No. 1 continues to defy the odds, as at the age of 28 and with just about every conceivable record in his pocket, he's stays motivated and amazingly, seems to be improving. To be able to face down a young player as smart and as talented as Murray in straight sets when it appeared as though Britain's greatest hopeful was at the top of his game is astounding. Murray came into the match with a 6-4 record against Federer and had scored mind-boggling knockouts of Rafael Nadal and Marin Cilic en route to the finals. He was smoking big serves, teeing off with his forehand, closing on the net and was no longer just a brilliant tactician with a hatchet of a backhand and eye-popping return of serve.

But Federer cautioned before the match that their head to head record had to be thrown out. Why? Because it was he who knew how to perform in major finals, and not Murray, who had only been there once before at the 2008 U.S. Open in a loss to Federer. That it was Murray who really needed the win to cement his status as an elite player.

Instead of bringing the up-tempo, suffocating attack that had wowed Nadal, Murray largely played a passive match, where Federer went right at him early, serving with precision and power, daring him to play into his ultra-dangerous forehand.  After Federer fought off three break points in the fifth game of the match, he seized control, breaking Murray to 5-4 with two forehands down both lines. He easily held to close out the first set and then broke the Scot to go up 2-1 in the second set with a flying forehand crosscourt pass and then forced Murray into a forehand error.

"I was just floating and trying to be dangerous," Federer said.  Unlike in previous matches when he was able to break Federer's backhand down and make major statements on his own service games, Murray merely poked the ball around and could get no real rhythm on his serve. The second set quickly disappeared with a vintage Federer serve and forehand swing volley and Murray dragged himself around the court.

But in the third, he woke up, but not for long enough. Heartened by the fact that Federer had lost two five-set Grand Slam finals in the past 13 months -- to Nadal at the Australian Open and to Juan Martin del Potro at the U.S. Open -- Murray began to claw and cut loose a little more. He got off to a 5-3 lead but then began to get shaky again as Federer began to press him. He was broken back to 5-4 on a lousy forehand and he screamed at himself.

Murray kept battling and brought the set to a tiebreaker, but he simply couldn't capitalize on five set points, three of which were lost on unforced errors and one, a backhand volley he missed at 7-6, will surely haunt him for the rest of the winter.  "I can cry like Roger, it's just a shame I can't play like him," a despondent Murray said during the awards ceremony.

Now Murray's long preparation for his next realistic chance to win a major -- the pressure cooker of Wimbledon -- will commence, while Federer can put up his feet and revel is his self-made glory. How about this: the Swiss has reached 18 of the last 19 Grand Slam finals, and has won 16 of the last 29 majors. Although the cliche goes that records are made to be broken, those are almost unapproachable marks. Here's another: He's won 16 Slams in the last six and half years. Who is going to approach that feat?

"I always knew I had something special, but I didn't know it was that crazy," Federer said. "I definitely had to work extremely hard so I would pick the right shot at the right time. I always knew I had it in my hands. The question is do I have it in my mind and in my legs. Now I feel like obviously I'm being pushed a great deal by the new generation coming up. When I came on tour, matches were played very differently. It was more of a bluff game, guys serving well, but there was always a weakness you could go to.

"Today that doesn't exist anymore. That's also thanks to guys like Murray. They've made me a better player, because I think this has been one of my finest performances in a long time, or maybe forever."

Outside of his main rival, Nadal, whose longevity as a standout player may be in jeopardy because of chronic tendonitis in his knees, no player has been able to consistently touch him at the majors. He'll take an odd loss here (to Novak Djokovic at the 2008 Aussie Open) and the odd defeat there (to del Potro), but no player in history has been so consistently lethal, so clutch, so willing to stand up and deliver just when it seems like he's about to take a step back.

"I'm flabbergasted to know what still motivates him," former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash said. "I certainly couldn't keep it up. There must be a real challenge there. He had great year last year, but was beaten by some young up-and-comers and for him to come out and play as well as he did here shows he still has stuff to prove to himself and to match up with the young guys. I didn't expect him to play this well."

Federer is confounded why he's even asked what still drives him. He's the father of twins now and became the first dad since Andre Agassi in 2003 to win a major. So why not just retire, take it easy, raise the kids and dreamily think back to his glory days. Maybe because there are more glory days ahead, or maybe because he was simply born to play.

"Unlike any of the other great champions who had angst or insecurities or needed something financially, this guy has a pure love of the game that we haven't seen before" said Tennis Channel analyst Justin Gimelstob. "It's the pure fulfillment of achievement and being the best that he can be."

In a record that will surely stand the test of time, Federer on Wednesday night advanced to his 23rd consecutive grand slam semi-final with an iron-willed four-set comeback victory over Nikolay Davydenko at the Australian Open.

"It's incredible looking back on how many years that is now that I'm able to deliver at grand-slam play," Federer said after rallying from a set and a service break down to snap the Russian's own impressive 13-match winning streak with a 2-6-3 6-0 7-5 quarter-final triumph at Melbourne Park.

"Especially this year, I think, looking at the draw with Hewitt in the fourth round and Davydenko in the quarters, who has been on fire the last weeks. "Even today we saw big signs of it, why he's such a great player. "So, for some reason, I was just a bit worried I was not going to make it this time to the semis. You always believe the streak is going to be broken.

"I stopped thinking about it after the second round on and just started focusing on the tournament "It helps once the tournament starts. You focus match for match and point for point, so I forget about the record. "Now obviously that it's safe again and I've been able to add one, it's amazing. "Definitely one of the most incredible things I have in my resume."

Federer will play Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who beat Novak Djokovic in a late finishing quarter-final on Wednesday night. Former champion Djokovic held a two sets to one lead, before an upset stomach caused him to meekly surrender the fourth set, and Tsonga pressed home his advantage in the decider. The 7-6 (10-8) 6-7 (5-7) 1-6 6-3 6-1 victory over the man who downed him in the 2008 final gives Muhammad Ali look-alike Tsonga a semi-final shot at world No.1 Roger Federer.

But if he is to make his second Australian Open final he will need to cut the errors from his game. What the match lacked in brilliance, it made up for in tension, drama and changes of fortune. The turning point came early in the fourth, when Djokovic began to clutch repeatedly at his stomach, before calling a medical time-out so he could leave the court to throw up. Tsonga seized his chance, racing through the fourth set with little trouble, then with the finish line in sight, quickly delivering the knockout blow in the fifth.

Federer's phenomenal run at the majors ranks alongside the likes of Lance Armstrong's seven consecutive Tour de France wins, Michael Jordan's seven NBA scoring titles on the spin, Edwin Moses' 122 successive 400m hurdles victories, Steve Redgrave's five successive Olympic rowing gold medals, Byron Nelson's 11 straight PGA Tour titles, Tiger Woods' 142 straight PGA cuts made and squash legend Jahangir Khan's 555-match winning streak.

Federer's record puts Rod Laver's 12 straight semi-finals - either side of his grand slam exile from 1963-67 - and Ivan Lendl's modern-era second-best 10 straight from 1985-88 into the shade. Federer's victory also clinched the world No.1 ranking for a 268th week, matching Jimmy Connors - the pair now tied for third behind only Pete Sampras (286 weeks) and Lendl (270 weeks) on the all-time list of longest reigns.

Federer was halfway to the Melbourne Park exit gates after dropping the opening set and staring a double break in the face in the second set. But the 15-times major champion barely blinked before reeling off 13 straight games - and winning 51 of the next 64 points in the process - to avert disaster against a confident foe who'd won their two most encounters over the past month.

"It was in a tough situation at 6-2, 3-1 down and 15-40 on my serve," Federer said.  "I knew I wasn't looking very good.  "But that's the beauty of best of five sets. I wasn't panicking, even though I maybe would have lost the second set had I lost another point there at that stage. "But I just relaxed and thought, you know, maybe if the sun goes and his level drops just a little bit, the whole thing might change for the better.  "It did. I couldn't believe the way it changed, but I'm happy the way I was able to go on an incredible run and get the cushion with the extra break at the beginning of the fourth."

The tenacious Henin is playing her first Grand Slam since coming out of an 18-month retirement and kept her historic run going with a 6-1, 6-0 demolition of unseeded Chinese Zheng Jie.

Williams also had to negotiate Chinese opposition and was made to work hard by 16th seed Li Na before grinding her down 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/1) under a hot sun on the Rod Laver Arena to set up an enticing decider on Saturday.

Ever since she announced her return to tennis the talk has been about whether Henin could emulate Belgian compatriot Kim Clijsters, who won last year's US Open on her own comeback. And the former world number one has lived up to expectations after being handed a wildcard by organizers. She destroyed Zheng as she stayed on track to add to her seven Grand Slam titles, including the 2004 Australian Open.

"The dream continues. I am going to play the number one and defending champion," said the 27-year-old, who became the first wildcard to reach the final here. "I wasn't sure about what I would feel on the court and how things would go. I have just enjoyed my tennis and taken it step by step. I can't wait for the final now, it is an amazing feeling."

Asked if she seriously expected to get this far, she revealed she was quietly confident, having booked a flight out for next Sunday before the start of the tournament. "I was curious about how things would go and I'm very happy to come back like this," she said.

Henin has negotiated some tough opposition to get this far, including fifth seed Elena Dementieva, 19th seed Nadia Petrova and talented Belgian Yanina Wickmayer.But the biggest test of her comeback will come in the form of Williams, who is angling for a 12th Grand Slam title to put her alongside Billie Jean King. 

She saw off Li in just over two hours, with the rising Chinese star saving four match points before a delighted Williams clinched the win with an ace. "I am happy I was able to pull it out, it was really close," said Williams. "I wasn't at my best today, but I'm still here which is shocking and I'm just going to do whatever I can to stay."

The world number one, who came back from the brink of defeat in a gruelling quarter-final against Victoria Azarenka, is also hoping to become the first player to successfully defend her title since American Jennifer Capriati in 2002.

But Williams was made to fight hard against a determined Li, who was not overawed playing in her first Grand Slam semi-final. She pushed Williams all the way and learned a lot from playing such a high-profile game.

"I lost the match and I was a little bit sad to be stopped in the semi-final, but I played good tennis today," said Li. "I think that I have to practice much, much more, particularly my serve."

MELBOURNE — Roger Federer and Serena Williams showed championship form to battle back from a set down and storm into their semi-finals at the Australian Open on Wednesday. Li Na also made the last four with an upset victory over Venus Williams, giving China two players in a Grand Slam semi for the first time. Her reward is a clash with top seed Serena.

But the tournament ended for ailing third seed Novak Djokovic who was knocked out in a thrilling late night five-setter by 10th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the man he beat in the 2008 final. The Frenchman will now meet Federer, who was given a scare by sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko when the Russian ace led 6-2, 3-1 before the Swiss star clicked into gear.

He won 13 straight games to take the next two sets before a titantic struggle in the fourth with the 15-time Grand Slam champion eventually coming home 2-6, 6-3, 6-0, 7-5 to end Davydenko's 13-match winning streak. It puts Federer into his 23rd consecutive Grand Slam semi-final, having never missed out since his third round defeat to Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten at Roland Garros in 2004.

"I've played him many times and I know he goes through phases for half an hour, an hour," Federer said of Davydenko. "You've just got to stick with him and if you don't he's going to crush you." All of a sudden I went on a run like I did and that was a bit surprising, but I needed that cushion at the end of the fourth when he played well." Asked if he was concerned that he might lose, he said: "I was a touch worried, let's put it that way."

Tsonga prevailed 7-6 (10/8), 6-7 (5/7), 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 in a near four-hour marathon against Djokovic, who was struggling with illness and at one point took a medical timeout for an upset stomach. It was sweet revenge for the Frenchman after his 2008 disappointment. "It was just amazing the level we played at. I'm so happy I won," said Tsonga, who added he would be ready for Federer on Friday despite being taken to five sets in his past two matches -- the only five-setters of his career. "I will be ready," he said. "It's going to be tough though, he's the best player ever."

Fifth seeded Andy Murray faces 14th seeded Croat Marin Cilic in the other semi-final on Thursday, with the Scot seeking to win Britain's first Grand Slam since Fred Perry in 1936.

Like Federer, Serena was also on the ropes before staging a comeback to stay on track for her fifth Australian title. She was down 4-6, 0-4 to seventh seed Victoria Azarenka before fighting back and winning a tense tiebreaker to level the match.

Azarenka was rattled and Serena rammed home her advantage to win 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2 and set up a clash with Li, who came from behind to shock Venus 2-6, 7-6 (7/4), 7-5. Justine Henin and unseeded Chinese Zheng Jie contest Thursday's other semi. "I am surprised and I am just happy to still be here," said Serena. "I didn't expect to win when I was down 0-4."

Venus should have made it a sister act in the semis, but she threw it away against Li in a scrappy match where they made a incredible combined 110 unforced errors. She was a set and 4-2 up in the second when Li made her move, playing with greater freedom as Venus tightened up, with her forehand going to pieces. Venus, who has won seven Grand Slams but never in Melbourne, admitted Li was the better player.

"I think I was playing good tennis -- I don't think it has anything to do with whether I was playing good," she said. "I have to give her a lot of credit for playing well and picking her game up." Making the semi-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time was a dream come true for the Chinese 16th seed. "It's the best day of my whole life," an exuberant Li said.

Four-time French Open champion Justine Henin confirmed on Monday that her comeback to tennis would begin in little more than a fortnight at Sydney's Medibank International, where she is to join a field headed by world number one Serena Williams.
 
The three-time champion at Olympic Park was awarded a wild card for the WTA event, which begins January 10 and serves as a tune-up for the Australian Open starting a week later.

Nine of the women ranked in the world top 10 are entered although the fitness situation is dicey for 2009 finalist Dinara Safina, who withdrew from the Brisbane event the week before with long-term back pain.
 
"I have a lot of happy memories of Sydney, so I'm looking forward to returning in January as part of my preparation for the Australian Open," Henin said in a statement. "The draw is very impressive.
 
"It will be great to get some tough, competitive matches before heading to Melbourne."
 
Henin, who retired unexpectedly in May 2008, saying she felt burned out, won the Sydney event in 2004, 2006 and 2008.
 
The 27-year-old stood atop the rankings for 117 non-consecutive weeks and won seven Grand Slam singles titles, including the Australian Open in 2004.
 
Included in the women's field are also Svetlana Kuznetsova, Dane Caroline Wozniacki and holder Elena Dementieva. The men's line-up is to feature Lleyton Hewitt, Gael Monfils, Tomas Berdych and Marcos Baghdatis.

It was a sentimental tennis season. Marat Safin, Amélie Mauresmo and Ai Sugiyama retired and actually appeared to mean it. Meanwhile, the unretired Kim Clijsters clutched the United States Open trophy as her 18-month-old daughter, Jada, toddled around the hard court where her mother had played with such strength and composure.

It was a controversial season. Serena Williams failed anger management at the United States Open but somehow avoided suspension. Israeli players generated diplomatic incidents in Dubai, where Shahar Peer was not given a visa for the women’s tournament, and in Sweden, where officials in Malmo cited security concerns in barring fans from a Davis Cup match against Israel.

It was a literary season, as Williams and the retired Andre Agassi produced autobiographies that were more revealing than the usual as-told-to filler that passes for sports literature.

Above all, it was a historic season, with Roger Federer becoming a family man and the career leader in Grand Slam singles titles. Federer finally won the French Open, the only major singles title he was missing. He then rode the wave — with his archrival Rafael Nadal absent — and won his record 15th major title at Wimbledon, the game’s favorite throwback and newly equipped with a translucent, retractable roof that was not closed for any of Federer’s matches. His latest title further bolstered the argument that he is the greatest player of all time.

Though he hardly dominated week in, week out in 2009, he reached the final of all four majors and regained the year-end ranking he had lost to Nadal in 2008. How easy then to forget that until May, this looked like Year 2 of Nadal’s reign, with the Majorcan launching his season by disposing of Federer in a five-set Australian Open final that left the Swiss star muttering, “God, it’s killing me,” through the tears at the awards ceremony.

But public breakdowns apparently do not end eras. Nor do minor tantrums, like the one Federer indulged in by throwing his racket for the first time in years in Miami. Nadal would eventually get derailed by knee problems and by Robin Soderling, the Swede who dealt Nadal his first loss at the French Open.

Federer has now turned into a scrapper in his middle tennis age. He had to claw his way through multiple five-setters to win at last in Paris and then had to keep holding serve in the Wimbledon final before finally prevailing, 16-14, over Andy Roddick in the fifth.

Federer could not hold off Juan Martín del Potro at the United States Open, however, as the towering del Potro gradually settled into his first Grand Slam final. He pounded enough thunderous forehand winners to end Federer’s 40-match winning streak in New York and to become the first Argentine man to win there since Guillermo Vilas in 1977.

Just to remind Federer and Nadal that the new guard will not be the only threat to their status in 2010, Nikolay Davydenko — a member of the establishment — beat Nadal, Federer and del Potro to win the year-end tour championships in London.

SHOTS OF THE YEAR A YouTube poll would surely favor Federer’s no-look, between-the-legs winner off a lob from Novak Djokovic in the semifinals of the United States Open. But the shot that really made all the difference for Federer came in the fourth round of the French Open against Tommy Haas. Down two sets to none and facing a break point at 3-4, Federer let fly with an inside-out forehand that caught the line. Federer said he knew then and there that he was going to win the tournament.

On the women’s side, it might not have been pretty, but Serena Williams’s lunging backhand volley against Elena Dementieva in a Wimbledon semifinal saved match point. Even if it clipped the net, it was a winner. Williams went on to win her third Wimbledon.

UPSETS OF THE YEAR No debate necessary for the men: Soderling’s victory over Nadal at Roland Garros. As for the women, Carla Suárez Navarro’s defeat of Venus Williams in the Australian Open certainly made waves. So did Sybille Bammer’s straight-set defeat of Serena Williams in Cincinnati. But it was the combined effect of Melanie Oudin’s run of upsets at the United States Open that made the biggest impression. Oudin, a 17-year-old American, knocked off three imposing Russians: Dementieva, Maria Sharapova and Nadia Petrova. Oudin has yet to win another main-draw match.

COMEBACKS OF THE YEAR Clijsters, the first unranked player to win a major singles title since Evonne Goolagong in 1977, is the obvious choice, but in any other season, the prize would have gone to Kimiko Date Krumm, the Japanese icon who won a tournament in Seoul at 38 after taking a nearly 12-year break from the game between 1996 and 2008.

For the men, Haas might have failed to close the deal against Federer in Paris, but he did get the job done against Marin Cilic and Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon in reaching the semifinals at 31. For the year, he improved his ranking 66 spots, finishing No. 18.

FLOPS OF THE YEAR The smooth-moving Ernests Gulbis of Latvia was on nearly everyone’s list of players to watch in 2009. He finished the year at No. 90. Ana Ivanovic, the 2008 French Open champion and former No. 1, struggled to get it right all season. Still charming, she was no longer as convincing with her serve or forehand, dropping out of the top 20 and failing to advance past the fourth round in a Slam.

MATCHES OF THE YEAR Serena Williams’s victory over Dementieva at Wimbledon was a three-set tussle brimming with athleticism, quality and courage. But Clijsters’ victory over Serena in the United States Open semifinals was more than a match. It was a spectacle wrapped up in a scandal. Clijsters kept her cool, and Williams most certainly did not as she threatened and swore at a lineswoman for calling a foot fault. Clijsters never had to win match point, but her brilliant play certainly brought Williams to the boiling point.

Nadal’s five-set victory over Fernando Verdasco in the Australian Open semifinals was an ode to tireless hitting and hard running. Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic had to play for more than six hours and withstand a record 78 aces before prevailing over Ivo Karlovic of Croatia in the Davis Cup semifinals. But Federer-Roddick gets the nod on the strength and length of the occasion. Even if Federer didn’t play his best, he served brilliantly. And Roddick, who will probably never get so close to another major singles title, was such a class act in defeat.

Marina Erakovic has no doubts she can put an injury-blighted year behind her and stage a climb back up the tennis rankings.

"Oh yeah, without a doubt," she said. "Definitely."

Now ranked 234th in the world, Erakovic will again begin the new season at the ASB Classic in Auckland in the first week of January, having been granted a wildcard this week to the WTA Tour event along with fellow New Zealander Sacha Jones.

It was her performance as a 19-year-old at the 2008 Classic, when she reached the semifinals, upsetting top seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva along the way, that started a big move up the rankings, peaking at a career-best 49th six months later after she made the third round at Wimbledon.

However, this year, a hip problem and then a sprained ankle sidelined Erakovic for seven months.

She played three ITF events after her return to competition in late October, twice getting into the main draw, where she lost in the first round.

Erakovic said the long layoff had been a new experience for her and, while she had got over her injuries, she was lacking match play.

"It's the matches that I'm needing - playing a lot of tournaments and getting used to those situations again," she said.

"And while I've not been playing, everyone else has been working hard and improving, so you have to catch up again, but it's made me a lot stronger as well."

The toughest part about being out of action was watching tennis on the television and wishing she was out there, Erakovic said.

She was at home for the first few months and wasn't able to do much.

"I was a couch potato and that was really hard," she said.

"But once I was back training again I was really hungry."

Because of her enforced inactivity, Erakovic has a protected ranking which she can use to get her into up to eight WTA Tour events next year.

"I would love to do well in those, get a good ranking again in the top 100, and still play the WTA," she said.

The first of the eight events she was targeting were the Australian Open, Indian Wells and Miami.

Erakovic's injury woes have seen her overtaken by Jones as New Zealand's top female player.

Jones, 19, had her own injury problems early this year, but came back with a vengeance to win five ITF titles.

She strung together 24 consecutive match victories in winning four of those titles and making the final of another event, and will head into the Classic with a ranking of 167.

Rather than expressing any disappointment over losing the mantle of the country's No 1, Erakovic praised Jones for her run of results.

"I'm happy for her and it's a great thing to have two of us on tour," she said.

"It's a great thing for the Fed Cup if there's two of us. The more players we have, the better."