Roger Federer is in rude health as he prepares to take on Hyeon Chung for a place in the Australian Open final

His four greatest rivals of the past decade are all nursing their injuries, but Roger Federer marches on.

The indefatigable Swiss is through to his 14th Australian Open semi-final and his 43rd in all Grand Slam tournaments after beating Tomas Berdych 7-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday.

Andy Murray failed to make the starting line-up in Melbourne because of hip surgery, Stan Wawrinka and Novak Djokovic suffered early exits in their first appearances for six months because of knee and elbow problems respectively, and Rafael Nadal retired hurt with a hip muscle problem in the fifth set of his quarter-final against Marin Cilic last night.

In contrast Federer, who sent a message to Nadal wishing him well after watching him suffer the previous evening, has sailed through his five matches without any sign of a physical problem and without dropping a set. At two hours and 14 minutes, his victory over Berdych was his longest match of the fortnight so far.

This was the 10th meeting in Grand Slam tournaments between Federer and Berdych, who had won on only two previous occasions.

The Czech, nevertheless, got off to a fine start and led 5-2 as the 36-year-old Swiss struggled to find his range. Federer’s mood was not helped by a row with the umpire when the Hawk-Eye video replay system failed to function properly.

However, the defending champion broke back in the ninth game and saved one set point with a backhand winner at 4-5 and another at 5-6 when Berdych hit a backhand beyond the baseline. Federer ran away with the ensuing tie-break, winning it 7-1.

A single break of serve in the eighth game was enough to give Federer the second set and in the third the Swiss had the better of three successive breaks of serve from 1-1 before serving out for victory.

In the semi-finals Federer will take on Hyeon Chung for the first time. The 21-year-old Korean, who has already knocked out Djokovic and Alexander Zverev, reached his first Grand Slam semi-final by beating Tennys Sandgren 6-4, 7-6, 6-3.

“I’m very excited to play Chung,” Federer said. “I thought he played an incredible match against Novak. To beat him here is one of the tough things to do in our sport, I believe.

“I know that Novak maybe wasn’t at 110 per cent but he was all right.”

He added: “I think it’s an interesting match for me. I’ll have to look into how I need to play against him.”