Australian Open 2018: Roger Federer is doing one thing better than everyone else – Laver

Federer faces Marin Cilic in his seventh Australian Open final later today aiming to win his 20th Grand Slam.

Both Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal suffered shock defeats earlier this week, although the latter did retire from his match against Cilic due to injury.

Hyeon Chung did the same in his semi-final match against Federer due to blisters with the 36-year-old a set and a break up. He’s certainly playing as well as he did eight or 10 years ago

Federer has only lost to Cilic once in the encounters between the two tennis stars, back in 2014 in the US Open semi-final.

But the Swiss legend recently beat Cilic at Wimbledon to pick up his eighth SW19 title.

And Laver, who won 11 Grand Slams throughout his illustrious career, believes Federer is playing as well as he did last decade because of one reason.

“He’s certainly playing as well as he did eight or 10 years ago,” Laver said.

“I wouldn’t say he’s better but Roger is playing some of his best tennis.

“Not all the time maybe. But pretty close to all the time.”

He added: ”He’s playing smarter.

“You learn when you’re playing an opponent or you see him a lot, he sees weaknesses that other people don’t see.

“That’s the difference between Roger and the field.

“The rest plays their game. That’s a big advantage.”