He may have started sluggishly, but Roger Federer eventually eased into the Australian Open quarter-finals, before sharing jokes with reporters about his next opponent.
Federer defeated Hungarian Martin Fucsovics 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 to reach the last eight, and admitted that his battle with John Millman in the previous round had left him a little sluggish at the start of his Last 16 matchup at the Rod Laver Arena.
The six-time champion eventually found his stride, and bounced back from a set down to win three sets in a row in dominant fashion to book his spot in the last eight of the tournament.
“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, recalling his match with Millman.
“I was able to recover; I’m sure I’m going to feel better every day that goes by after that match.”
Federer admitted Fucsovics caught him off guard with a superb opening set that forced him to gather himself and bounce back to ensure his passage to the next round.
“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.
“He gave me a beatdown 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.”
Federer will now move on to face American Tennys Sandgren, who battled past Fabio Fognini to earn his spot in the last eight.
And the Swiss star joked with the press that, given Sandgren’s appropriate first name, there really was no other career he could have gone into.
“He was not going to be a baseball player, that’s for sure!” he laughed. “I’m looking forward to it.”I’ve played a lot of tennis in my life but never against Tennys.”
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