Victoria Azarenka (left) and Li Na are both in their third Grand Slam final. (Getty Images)

The match had everything. A hero, a villain, fireworks, an injury, and a near-concussion. In the end it was Victoria Azarenka successfully defending her Australian Open title by beating crowd-favorite Li Na 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 to capture her second Slam title. The win means Azarenka will retain her No. 1 ranking when the new WTA rankings come out on Monday.

It wasn’t a great match in terms of the tennis but it certainly did not lack in drama. After Li took the first set she rolled her left ankle in the second set but soldiered on. Azarenka forced a third set which was interrupted for 10 minutes for a fireworks display in honor of Australia Day. On the first point back Li tripped over her ankle again and hit her head hard against the court, again requiring medical attention. Through it all Azarenka kept her cool, a difficult task in light of amount of anti-Vika sentiment that swelled over the last 48 hours.

I think I can safely say this: I have never and will never see another Slam final as out of this world crazy as this one.

Game-by-game analysis of this dramatic rollercoaster of a match after the jump.

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Roger Federer lost his cool a few times in Friday’s match. (Daniel Munoz/Reuters)

Roger Federer wasn’t his usual cool self during a 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-2 loss to Andy Murray in the Australian Open semifinals on Friday.

As The New York Times reported, the television microphones picked up expletives from the 17-time major champion on multiple occasions.

[T]he BBC was compelled on Friday to apologize for Federer’s “bad language.”

Federer’s first clearly audible obscenity in his semifinal loss to Andy Murray came with Murray serving at 4-5, 15-30. Murray fired a body serve which Federer could just get his backhand in front of and sent him into mostly indistinguishable muttering, punctuated with a loud, hard expletive in the middle.

Federer’s second audible offense came with Murray serving at 3-4, 40-40, in the fourth set. Murray won a 17-shot rally, and Federer exclaimed that his opponent had been “lucky,” preceding that word with a choice adverb.

Popping off at the back of the court is one thing, but directing comments at your opponent is another. With Murray serving for the match at 6-5 in the fourth set, here’s how The Times described the first point of that game:

Murray prevailed in 15-stroke rally with a forehand winner, with both players finishing the point near the net. But Federer, on the brink of defeat, appeared to have taken issue with a slight mid-rally [hesitation] by Murray, and shouted “you [expletive]-ing stopped!” across the net. Murray appeared at first surprised, then amused, twisting his face into an exaggeratedly satisfied smirk, laughing and nodding toward his player’s box.

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Victoria Azarenka came under criticism for her medical timeout in the semifinals. (Greg Wood/AFP/Getty Images)

The Australian Open women’s final pits the defending champion and No. 1 Victoria Azarenka against 2011 finalist Li Na, in a match that offers both a chance to join Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova as the only active players with more than one Slam.

For Azarenka, it hasn’t been as complicated on the court as it’s been off of it (see photo above). She’s faced only one seed in her six matches, No. 29 Sloane Stephens in Thursday’s semifinals. No. 6 Li ousted No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanska and No. 2 Maria Sharapova and hasn’t lost a set all tournament. The last time Li beat two top-five players at a tournament she won it. That would be the 2011 French Open.

Stephens’ coach: Azarenka ‘cheating within rules’

On form, you have to give the slight edge to Li, though Azarenka leads the head-to head 5-4 and is on a 20-match win streak in January matches. Her last January loss was at the Australian Open in 2011 to … Li. In fact, Li is 2-0 against her at Slams, though Azarenka has won their last four matches.

The final will begin at 3:30 a.m. ET/12:30 a.m. PT on ESPN.

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No. 3 Andy Murray will play No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the final on Sunday. (Dita Alangkara/AP)

A roundup of what you may have missed overnight from Andy Murray’s 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-2 win over Roger Federer in the Australian Open semifinals.

Highlights

ESPN’s package highlights: As an aside, can we get the SportsCenter guys some seminars on how to call tennis highlights? At a minimum they should learn the difference between “cross-court” and “down the line.”

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Roger Federer (left) and Andy Murray are meeting for the 20th time in their careers. (Getty Images)

Andy Murray saved his best tennis of the tournament for Roger Federer, and he needed every ounce of it to notch his first win over Federer at a Slam, winning 6-4, 6-7, 6-3, 6-7, 6-2 to advance to his third straight Slam final. Federer was thoroughly outplayed by Murray in every facet of the match but was able to force a fifth set after an incredible effort to steal two sets via tiebreakers. But this was a win that had Ivan Lendl’s fingerprints all over it. Murray made Federer work for every point throughout the match and despite getting broken while serving for the match in the fourth set and losing the tiebreaker, Murray continued to strike the ball as well as he did in the first set while Federer’s fitness failed him.

Murray will face No. 1 Novak Djokovic in Sunday night’s final.

Game-by-game analysis after the jump.

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Andy Murray and Roger Federer last played at the ATP Finals, won by Federer in straight sets. (Sang Tan/AP)

Three singles matches in three days remain at the Australian Open. Roger Federer and Andy Murray meet in the last semifinal on Friday with the winner getting Novak Djokovic in Sunday’s final.

• No. 2 Roger Federer vs. No. 3 Andy Murray (3:30 a.m. ET, ESPN): I feel pretty confident in saying that this men’s semifinal won’t turn out to be the 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 drubbing that David Ferrer received from Djokovic on Thursday night. No, for all the dramatic previews and trailers the men’s draw has provided — and we have to thank the Bernard Tomics, Stanislas Wawrinkas and Jo-Wilfried Tsongas of the world for that — the screen now turns dark. We begin the main attraction of the fortnight, as 128 players have dwindled to three. The Big Three.

Federer and Murray meet before the final of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time. Murray has another shot to get the one scalp that has eluded him on the big stage. It’s easy to forget that Murray is one of the few players, along with Rafael Nadal, who actually has a winning record against Federer. But despite that 10-9 edge, Murray is 0-for-3 against Federer in Slams, with his most recent loss coming in last year’s Wimbledon final. Of course, all that came before Murray got the better of him in the Olympic gold-medal match, 6-2, 6-1, 6-4, his first best-of-five win over Federer.

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Novak Djokovic only spent 1 hour, 29 minutes on court in his 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 destruction of David Ferrer to advance to his third straight Australian Open final. He’ll now have two days rest while his potential opponents, Andy Murray and Roger Federer, play their semifinal Friday. So with time to kill, Djokovic, the king of impressions, unveiled a new one he’s been working on: medic. Or English flag. It could go either way.

Djokovic came out in front of the sparse crowd that stayed for the Legends doubles match, which featured Goran Ivanisevic, Pat Cash, Henri Leconte and Guy Forget, to administer a medical timeout for Leconte. It wasn’t a wasted effort.

“The diagnosis we determined with my assistant is that he’s definitely crazy,” Djokovic joked in his post-match press conference. “He needs a long term treatment.”

And as luck would have it, with all the talk of ill-timed medical timeouts and their chilling effect, play resumed with Ivanisevic double-faulting on the first point and eventually getting broken.

Crafty, Leconte. Very crafty.

Victoria Azarenka receives medical attention late in the second set Thursday. (Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)sl

Victoria Azarenka made her second straight Australian Open final by defeating Sloane Stephens 6-1, 6-4, but her controversial use of a 10-minute medical timeout before Stephens was to serve to stay in the match has everyone talking.

After breaking to go ahead 5-3 in the second set, Azarenka served for the match and choked. And choked. And choked. She earned five match points and squandered five match points with nervous groundstrokes, particularly from her forehand. She grew more and more frustrated with each missed opportunity, swatting at balls angrily, letting loose ear-piercing shrieks and exhibiting the worst body language we’ve seen from her in quite some time. Stephens eventually broke her serve. That’s when things got complicated.

With Stephens about to serve to stay in the match after the changeover, Azarenka called a medical timeout that lasted 10 minutes off court and allowed her to regroup. There was no official word at the time as to the medical reasons for her call to the doctor, though she was seen pointing to her chest during the evaluation period. After the 10-minute break, during which Stephens just sat at her bench, Azarenka came out and promptly broke for the win.

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We can only assume this is what it appears to be — the right ankle of Serena Williams.

Ouch mob.li/_nxDCj—
Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) January 24, 2013

Williams collapsed to the court with an ankle injury in her first-round win at the Australian Open and then appeared to aggravate it in doubles the day before her quarterfinal match with Sloane Stephens.

In that 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 loss to Stephens, Williams called a medical timeout due to back spasms, possibly brought on by overcompensating from the ankle injury.

“I’ve had a tough two weeks between the ankle, which is like this big every day, and my back,” Williams said after the Stephens loss Wednesday.

Sloane Stephens (left) is in her first major semifinal, while Victoria Azarenka is the defending champion. (Getty Images)

Victoria Azarenka defeated Sloane Stephens 6-1, 6-4 to make her second straight Australian Open final and she did so under some very controversial circumstances. After squandering five match points in the second set, Azarenka called a 10-minute medical timeout that left Stephens waiting to serve to stay in the match. Azarenka then successfully broke Stephens to seal the match to the subdued applause of the Aussie crowd.

People will be talking about this one for a while.

Game-by-game analysis after the jump.

Second Set

1:25 a.m. ET | Game, set, match: Azarenka defeats Stephens 6-1, 6-4.

Azarenka is still struggling with that forehand. Completely unsure about that shot. Doesn’t know whether to hit it or guide it in. But Stephens’ decision to just sit for 10 minutes during the MTO as opposed to getting up and serving some practice serves does seem to have disrupted her rhythm.

Azarenka earns her sixth match point and finally converts as Stephens goes for a backhand down the line winner that lands long.

The Aussie crowd gives Stephens a fantastic ovation as she walks off court. She’ll be disappointed in the end there. She had the World No. 1 on the verge of a breakdown.

“Well I almost did the choke of the year,” Azarenka says during her on court interview. Oddly, despite being asked about why she took the MTO, Azarenka doesn’t give a medical reason. Simply says she felt overwhelmed and the nerves got to her. Last time I checked, that’s not a medical reason for a 10 minute break.

Paging Vika's PR Team. Paging Vika's PR Team. We have a CODE RED.—
Lindsay Gibbs (@linzsports) January 24, 2013

You could hear a pin drop during Azarenka's on-court interview; compare the crowd volume to Li's remarks—
Ed McGrogan (@EdMcGrogan) January 24, 2013

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