MELB-OURNE: Roger Federer regained control after a slow start against Hungarian Marton Fucsovics to march into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open with a 4-6 6-1 6-2 6-2 win on a chilly evening at the Rod Laver Arena yesterday while Novak Djokovic continued his imperious progress, negotiating a potentially tricky encounter with Diego Schwartzman 6-3 6-4 6-4.
Earlier, in-form Canadian Milos Raonic pounded down 35 aces and 55 winners to overcome Croatian Marin Cilic 6-4 6-3 7-5 and become the first man to reach the quarter-finals.
The 29-year-old, a former world number three, is seeded a lowly 32nd at Melbourne Park but has been in impressive form over the first week and reached the last eight without losing a set.
Cilic, the 2014 US Open champion, may have been feeling the effects of two five-set matches against seeded opponents earlier in the tournament and needed a lengthy medical timeout for treatment on his back at 3-0 down in the second set.
Federer, the six-time Australian Open winner, who was two points from defeat against John Millman in his previous round, looked rusty in the opening set against Fucsovics in a repeat of their fourth-round clash here in 2018.
“The morning after Johnny’s match and this morning I lay in bed for an hour thinking, ‘when are we going to stand up? Okay 1-2-3, huh, and how do I feel?” he laughed, referring to his 4-6 7-6(2) 6-4 4-6 7-6(8) win over Millman.
“I was able to recover; I’m sure I’m going to feel better every day that goes by after that match.”
Fucsovics had not won a set against Federer in their previous two meetings but wiped that off his record after getting the only break in the seventh game of the opener when the Swiss committed three straight unforced errors.
“It was a tough start, I thought that Marton played clean, I struggled with the (after-effects) from the Millman match,” said the 38-year-old Federer, who hit 44 winners as opposed to 36 unforced errors against Fucsovics.
“He gave me a beat-down from the baseline so maybe he took my confidence away a little bit. It just took some time, I was looking to maybe mix it up a little bit more. It gets pretty slow in the night time, especially when it’s cool like this.”
Shifted
The 20-times Grand Slam winner shifted up a gear in the second set and broke Fucsovics’s serve twice to level the match.
Federer maintained his intensity in the third and a couple of early breaks gave him a 4-0 lead while he broke Fucsovics twice more in the fourth set to complete the victory.
“It’s frosty,” joked Federer. “It’s not that cold, it’s fresh. We know how it can be in Australia this time of year. It’s better this way. I don’t know who wants it incredibly hot.”
The third-seeded Federer will now face American Tennys Sandgren, who defeated No 12 seed Fabio Fognini 7-6(5) 7-5 6-7(2) 6-4 earlier yesterday.
World number 100 Sandgren took a two-set lead, held his nerve as his 12th-seeded opponent suffered a meltdown and triumphed after a rollercoaster ride of a match to set up a last-eight meeting.
Fognini had battled through two five-set matches at the tournament, including coming from two sets down in the opening round, and another looked on the cards when he won the third set on the tiebreak.
The fourth set stayed on serve until Sandgren produced three straight aces to hold for 5-4 and carried the momentum through to the following game, wrapping up the win with a drop shot from his knees at the net after a 26-stroke rally.
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