Contemporary men’s world tennis rivals, Roger Federer of Switzerland and Novak Djokovic of Serbia both enjoyed comfortable wins to cruise ahead into the third round of this year’s Australian Open in Melbourne, megasportsarena.com gathered.
The 38-year-old Federer beat world number 41 Filip Krajinovic of Serbia 6-1 6-4 6-1 in 92 minutes and will face Australia’s John Millman next, as he pursues a bid to match seven titles Down Under held by the defending champion, Djokovic, who dismissed Japanese wildcard Tatsuma Ito 6-1 6-4 6-2 in 95 minutes.
The 32-year-old Djokovic, chasing a 17th Grand Slam title, has been working on his serve with former Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic and fired down 16 aces against Ito, and will next face Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka next after he knocked out British number one Dan Evans.
“My serve was working extremely well in the first and second round. That’s something I worked on in the off-season. One of the priorities of the training sessions is trying to get that advantage of winning a lot of easy points on the first serve. It has been paying off so far,” he said.
Federer is competing at Melbourne Park for a 21st consecutive year and has reached at least the last 32 on every occasion.
He came into the tournament without playing any warm-up events but has only dropped 13 games in his two matches.
However, Millman, who saw off Polish 31st seed Hubert Hurkacz in straight sets, beat Federer at the 2018 US Open.
“I think the match is really going to be a test for me because John is fit like a fiddle,” said the Swiss. “He’s from this country, so naturally also it’s going to be different intensity.”
In another game on Wednesday, Italian eighth seed, Matteo Berrettini became the highest-ranked player to exit, losing in five sets to Tennys Sandgren.
Berrettini fought back after losing the first two sets but American world number 100 Sandgren went on to win 7-6 (9-7) 6-4 4-6 2-6 7-5.
Sandgren’s compatriot Tommy Paul also pulled off a five-set upset when he beat Bulgarian 18th seed Grigor Dimitrov 6-4 7-6 (8-6) 3-6 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (10-3).
Former US Open champion and 2018 Australian Open finalist Marin Cilic was another to come through a tense five-setter, beating French 21st seed Benoit Paire 6-2 6-7 (6-8) 3-6 6-1 7-6 (10-3).
Meanwhile, sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas did not even have to hit a ball to reach the last 32 after opponent Philipp Kohlschreiber withdrew injured, after which organisers said the 36-year-old German had a muscle strain.
Greece’s Tsitsipas, 21, will face Milos Raonic in the last 32 after the Canadian saw off Cristian Garin of Chile in straight sets.
Exciting 18-year-old Jannik Sinner was unable to make it past the second round, losing 6-4 6-4 6-3 to Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics.
