Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic reach Australian Open last eight
Having been pushed to the brink by John Millman in a late-night classic on Friday, Federer again dropped the opening set to Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics.
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Hide AdBut this time he did not need a deciding set, scrapping hard in cool, breezy conditions to win 4-6 6-1 6-2 6-2 after two hours and 11 minutes.
Federer admitted the Millman match had affected him, saying: “It was a tough start, I thought Marton played clean. After Millman, the guy gave me a beatdown from the baseline, so maybe took away my confidence a bit.
“I just had to figure it out. I had a good start to the second set and from there it got a little bit easier.”
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Hide AdFederer did not look physically at his best, which was no surprise after his efforts two nights before.
He said: “I was able to recover and play a good match so I’m sure I’m going to feel better every day that goes by.”
Defending champion Novak Djokovic reached his 46th slam quarter-final in confident fashion with a 6-3 6-4 6-4 victory over 14th seed Diego Schwartzman.
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Hide AdAfter dropping a set to Jan-Lennard Struff in the opening round, Djokovic has begun to look ever more like the player who has won six of the last nine titles here.
The second seed said: “I had a fantastic couple of matches in a row. I felt more confident going through the ball, hitting serves really well.
“Diego was in form. I stepped out on the court with a clear game plan. I kept things pretty much in control in all three sets.”
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Hide AdNext Djokovic will face resurgent 32nd seed Milos Raonic, who is yet to drop a set and is through to the quarter-finals for the fifth time in six years.
Amid all the hype around young Canadians Bianca Andreescu, Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime, Raonic has felt a little like yesterday’s man, but the 29-year-old insists he is not trying to prove a point.
“Couldn’t care less,” he said. “I just care about how I’m playing and feel on the court.”
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Hide AdRaonic is certainly playing very well, following up his upset of Stefanos Tsitsipas by beating Marin Cilic 6-4 6-3 7-5.
He has won only two sets in nine matches against Djokovic, but a number of the sets have been close.
“I’m going to have to serve well, clearly.
“Then I think I’m going to have to get my return at a high percentage, make him play a lot of those points, and then try to be efficient on my service games,” said Raonic.
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Hide AdFederer’s next opponent is American Tennys Sandgren, who is once again playing well above his ranking at a slam.
Ranked 100, Sandgren is through to the quarter-finals here for the second time in three years after winning a wild contest against volatile 12th seed Fabio Fognini 7-6 (5) 7-5 6-7 (2) 6-4.
Fognini rowed with the umpire and the supervisor, took a long bathroom break and received a point penalty.
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Hide AdSandgren said: “It’s a roller coaster sometimes with him. Sometimes you’re just a passenger with what’s going on.
“He doesn’t play well, all of a sudden he’s playing amazing, you’re stuck with your hands in your pockets like, ‘Shoot, I’d like to play tennis, too’.”