In Monday’s round of sixteen, Roger Federer is confronted with a genger who has made a bit of tennis history by making it to the fourth round: Marton Fucsovics, the first Hungarian since Balasz Taroczy to make it so far for a major.
Roger Federer has been asked time and again in the last few days what is different about this Australian Open than in 2017 – the year of his dream coup, the year of his breathtaking comeback after a long break from injury. Federer then didn’t turn his heart into a pit of murderers, clearly stating what was going on:”The tension is much greater. After the one-time exceptional situation of the previous year, Federer is back in normal mode, so to speak. He is clearly one of the favourites for the Grand Slam top prize. He lives with high demands of the tennis industry. And he himself has high goals again.
But the truth is that he is also able to cope with this situation in the best possible way, as is so often the case in the late years of his exceptional career. When he left the Centre Court in Melbourne on Saturday evening, he had been in the 19th century. Comparison with the Frenchman Richard Gasquet on the 17th century Won six times, now 6:2,7:5 and 6:4. And he had already had to 16. For the 16th time in all of his Australian Open years, he has reached the 16th round, the tournament phase in which a Grand Slam gains even more excitement, intensity and dynamism. It’s fantastic to start the year like this,”Federer said later,” but it’s still going to be tough tests now, of course.”
However, an unusual colleague will face him on Monday, Hungarian Marton Fucsovics, who has earned his daily bread on the Challenger tour – the Second League of World Tennis. The eightieth in the world rankings has only just entered the advanced tournament phase on the ATP tour, which was last year in Basel with the quarter-finals. There, Federer also met the Nobody:”He is a nice guy, a solid player from the baseline. For him, it must be a great moment.”
The last Hungarian to do the same was Balasz Taroczy, who also made it to the French Open in Paris in 1984, and surprise Fucsovics caught the attention of the scene experts eight years ago when he won the junior competition in Wimbledon. However, he was not able to make the breakthrough in adult tennis afterwards. Last year he failed in the first Australian Open qualification round.
Federer will not underestimate his comparatively unknown opponent as much as he will not underestimate one of his favourite opponents, the Frenchman Gasquet. The Maestro played the game fluently and concentrated, showed typical qualities at the important points, fought off all attempts of Gasquets to gain more points and influence in the duel for a long time,”It was a close match. But I showed bite when it came down to it,”Federer later said,”I’m very happy with the whole tournament so far.”
Only in the third set there was some thrill when Federer played a 4:2 lead and Gasquet could equalize to 4:4. A spectacular backhand winner of the 36-year-old Grand Slam record winner finished the match after just under two hours:”I feel fit, I feel healthy. I have something else to do here,”Federer added. As if the world and all its competitors didn’t know that anyway. Won Federer on Monday, then either the scandal-stricken Italian Fabio Fognini or Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych would wait for Federer in the quarter-finals.