Tennis: Federer and Murray to serve up enticing main course

The greatest grand slam winner in men's tennis history will take on the most recent when Roger Federer (pictured) and Andy Murray meet in an Australian Open semi-final tonight. Photo / Getty Images.

The greatest grand slam winner in men's tennis history will take on the most recent when Roger Federer and Andy Murray meet in an Australian Open semi-final tonight.

US Open champion Murray and Federer - whose 17 major titles include four in Australia - will be out to book a spot in Sunday night's final against world No.1 Novak Djokovic.

They are expected to have a much tighter tussle than the Serb's 6-2 6-2 6-1 whipping of Spanish fourth seed David Ferrer on Thursday night.

While the Federer-Murray clash is an enticing main course, Friday's entrees have a strong Australian flavour.

By the time Federer and Murray take to Rod Laver Arena, four other Australians could already have become Australian Open champions and four more might have booked their place in weekend finals.

Sixteen-year-old Ashleigh Barty and compatriot Casey Dellacqua will seek to become the first all-Australian pairing in 36 years to claim the women's doubles title.

In just their third tournament together, the Australians will be underdogs in the final against Italian top seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, who won the French Open and US Open together last year and were runners-up in the Australian Open.

Also chasing a trophy are Australian juniors Jay Andrijic and Bradley Mousey, who will take on German Maximilian Marterer and Austria's Lucas Miedler in the boys' doubles final.

Two more Australians, Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden, will play in a mixed doubles semi-final on Friday against Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova and Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin.

A further two Australians, Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis will play in separate boys' singles semi-finals.

-AAP