John Millman bid farewell to the Australian Open in round two. His sympathies for the final between Roger Federer and Marin Cilic should be clear on the side of the “Maestro”.
John Millman will probably be known to German tennis fans by the end of next week, and the Australian is in Lleyton Hewitt’s Davis Cup line-up, who will play against Michael Kohlmann’s side in Brisbane. In Austria, Millman made a name for himself in 2016, when the man who tormented Dominic Thiem in the first round of the US Open 2016 over five sets. One year later, the current number 122 was defeated by Philipp Kohlschreiber, who was born in Augsburg but will be missing in Brisbane.
At the moment, however, John Millman is no different from many tennis fans who wonder whether Roger Federer will be celebrating his 20th birthday in Melbourne on Sunday. Major title will win. It can be assumed that the 28-year-old Australian will keep his fingers crossed for the Maestro.
Although Millman and Federer have only faced each other once in a professional tennis match – fittingly in Millman’s hometown Brisbane, where the 36-year-old Baselbieter won in three sets – nothing has been the same since then.
“Since we played against each other in Brisbane at that time, Roger has behaved incredibly well towards me, so naturally,”wrote Millman on the website The Players’ Voice,”He greets me and is actually always ready for a conversation…. When you see him at tournaments, he always hits a few balls with children, with different types of players. And Severin Lüthi is just like Roger.”
Especially since the Swiss Davis Cup captain was also an extremely talented player in his youth. For some time now, Lüthi has been Federer’s constant companion, alongside Ivan Ljubicicic, responsible for the playful aspect.
“One of the highlights of this Australian Open was for me, apart from the match of course, simply to chat with Severin about tennis”, Milman continued. I’m not surprised Severin is part of Roger’s team. In Melbourne, Millman had easily won three sets against Borna Coric in round one, but then Damir Dzumhur from Bosnia was defeated.