Federer, Murray Dominate To Roll Into Australian Open Fourth Round
Four-time Australian Open champion Roger Federer moved into the fourth round in Melbourne in dominating form on Friday, dismissing 10th seed Tomas Berdych 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 to beat the Czech for the 17th time in his career.
“I didn’t expect this as such, to be honest, especially not this kind of a scoreline,” said Federer. “Especially not having to save any break points, just always rolling on the serve. That was a big surprise to me. I think it was a great mental test for me to see if I could stay in the match—point for point. I was able to do that. That’s where I’m just really happy that I was able to deliver that.”
After shaking off some rust and receiving a strong test from Long Island’s Noah Rubin in the second round, Federer looked the best he has since returning from his injuries on Friday. He hit 40 winners to just 17 unforced errors, didn’t face a single break point on his own serve and converted on four of his five break point chances to cruise past Berdych in an hour and a half.
Federer will have to get past another top seed in his fourth round match next as he meets fifth-seed Kei Nishikori. The three-time Melbourne quarterfinalist dismissed Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, having his serve broken only once and hitting 46 winners to advance in a little over two hours.
Federer is 4-2 all-time against Nishikori.
“For sure it’s not going to be easy,” Nishikori said of facing Federer. “He was playing great tennis today. I watched only a few points. But it’s always great to play Roger. It’s a big challenge for me. I’m just happy to play him because I think we needed him on the tour. I’m happy to see him back 100 percent.”
World number one and five-time finalist Andy Murray rolled past American Sam Querrey 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 to book his spot in the Melbourne fourth-round for the ninth consecutive year.
“I thought I did pretty good today. The start of the match was hard as Sam came out serving big. He was really going for his shots,” said Murray. “The end of that first set was important. He had a break point at 3-4. When I saved that and broke the next game, the momentum was with me. I started to serve a bit better and put a lot more returns back in play after that.”
Murray then evaluated his own play through his first three matches:
I think I’ve played a little bit better each match. There’s not been one thing I’ve been delighted with. I thought I moved much better today than I did in the first two matches, which is really positive for me…Hopefully I keep getting better.”
Up next for Murray is Germany’s Mischa Zverev, who followed up his upset victory over John Isner by defeating Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri 6-1, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 on Friday.
An American man hasn’t won a Grand Slam since Andy Roddick captured the U.S. Open title in 2003, and that streak will continue. Murray defeated Querrey leaving only 23rd Jack Sock as the only American remaining in the draw, but he was defeated by 12th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Friday, as the Frenchman advanced with a 7-6(4), 7-5, 6-7(8), 6-3 victory.
Tsonga will take on Great Britain’s Daniel Evans, who continued his Melbourne run with a 7-5, 7-6(2), 7-6(3) win over 27th seeded Australian Bernard Tomic.
“It was a goal to make the fourth round of a Slam this year,” said Evans. “It’s satisfying. But I’m not looking back yet. We’ve got another match on Sunday, we’ll see what happens then.”
2014 champion Stan Wawrinka came back from a set down to beat Viktor Troicki 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, 7-6(7) and reach the Australian Open fourth round for the fifth straight season.
He will take on Italy’s Andreas Seppi next, Seppi defeated Belgium’s Steve Darcis 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(1), 7-6(2).
