MELBOURNE — Two points from elimination in a wild, late-night ride of a fourth round, Novak Djokovic has not squandered his reprieve.

He is now back to playing tennis on a higher plane and back in the final of another Australian Open. On Thursday night, he even gave himself the rare chance to get to bed at a reasonable hour in Melbourne by transforming his night-session semifinal with David Ferrer into a 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 rout.