Roger Federer recovered after dropping the first set to beat Marton Fucsovics of Hungary, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 on Sunday to reach the quarterfinals at the Australian Open in Melbourne.
The third-seeded Federer became the first man to reach 15 Australian Open quarterfinals (in 21 appearances) as he seeks to win the tournament for a seventh time.
Coming in off of a four-hour-plus marathon win over John Millman in the previous round, Federer started slowly against Fucsovics.
“It was a tough start, I thought Marton played clean,” Federer said afterward. “I guess it was the rest of the Millman match, that guy gave me a beatdown from the baseline, so maybe it took my confidence away a little bit and I think it just took some time.”
Federer recovered from the early hiccup to breeze past Fucsovics in two hours, 11 minutes. Federer improved to 3-0 lifetime against Fucsovics, who also was denied a quarterfinal spot by Federer in the 2018 Australian Open.
“He really played a great tournament,” Federer said of Fucsovics. “He beat three young guys, [got] through a tough section to make it to the fourth round.” Next up for Federer is unseeded American Tennys Sandgren, who stunned No. 12 seed Fabio Fognini of Italy 7-6 (5), 7-5, 6-7 (2), 6-4.
It will be the first meeting between Federer and Sandgren.
“I am looking forward to playing against him,” the Swiss said. “I have never played against Tennys. I have played a lot of tennis in my life, but never against Tennys.”
Seven-time Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic, the No. 2 seed, also advanced, beating No. 14 seed Diego Schwartzman of Argentina 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.
In the quarterfinals, Djokovic will face No. 32 seed Milos Raonic of Canada.
Raonic rolled past Marin Cilic of Croatia 6-4, 6-3, 7-5 to book his spot in the quarters.
Raonic, who nailed 35 aces against Cilic, has yet to drop serve through four matches.
“I think I’m going to have to hit more than 35 aces,” Raonic said of facing the Serbian star next. Djokovic is 9-0 all-time against Raonic.
–Field Level Media
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