Roger Federer’s first deployment in a day session – but Hungarian outsider Marton Fucsovic didn’t really get the defending champion into a sweat.
He greeted his opponent with a friendly handshake even before the game, near the changing rooms. And later, when Roger Federer’s match against Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics was over, the Maestro expressly wished the Grand Slam nobody another successful season in 2018. But in between there were no niceties of the Swiss champion player, who defeated the 26-year-old outsider 6:4,7:6 (7:3) and 6:2 and thus reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open for the fourteenth time in his career.
“I’m very satisfied. There is little to complain about. And indeed: Federer underscored his role as the tournament’s number one favourite with his largely silent and efficient success, his claim to crowning the mission of defending the title with the new top prize in Melbourne,” Federer has left the strongest impression in the field so far,”said Australian ex-champion Pat Cash.” It’s going to be a great success.
Federer, the Grand Slam King with a total of 19 career titles at the majors, is now awaiting an old acquaintance. The 32-year-old Czech Tomas Berdych, whom he has confronted 25 times in the years together on the Tour Circuit. Federer has won 19 times, the highly talented Berdych has won six times, and there are no secrets between us,”says Federer. A year ago, after two strenuous Australian Open wins in the third round, he beat Berdych impressively in the third round, and it was something like the initial spark for the later title miracle on the Yarra River:”We had a good match back then,” Federer said in a TV interview on Monday before correcting himself:”I had a good match.
Federer also lives on well-known strengths in this Grand Slam mission down under. Above all, the power to assert oneself effectively in tricky moments – not least with a powerful service that guarantees many extra points. Federer has so far, at the Australian Open Championships in 2018, seldom played excessively spectacularly, but goal-oriented. It tightens the tempo and intensity whenever necessary.
Otherwise, he is a champion in the discipline of Grand Slam force management, knowing that he still needs all sorts of resources in the final phase of this major. Federer acts with all his routine, with the treasure of collected experiences from so many years of Grand Slam. However, he didn’t get everything from the bat either: He only used three out of ten break options against Fucsovics, and in the second of the three acts in this round of sixteen, he even had to go into the tiebreak. But in the end, however, he certainly dominated it again.
It was, by the way, also the first time Federer was in daylight at this tournament – after three night performances in the first week. However, Federer didn’t mind the changed shift operation much, he summed it up pragmatically:”It’s just that the alarm clock rings a little earlier. Earlier than when you come to bed at three o’ clock in the morning after an evening game,” but from now on he will only play late at the typical late night shows in Rod Laver Arena.