Tennis – Australian Open – Third Round – Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia – January 25, 2020. Switzerland’s Roger Federer in action during his match against Australia’s John Millman. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Roger Federer faced down local battler John Millman 4-6 7-6(2) 6-4 4-6 7-6(8) in a five-set thriller on Friday night to reach the last 16 of the Australian Open and restore some normality to Melbourne Park after a day of big upsets.
The 20-times Grand Slam champion made an extraordinary 82 unforced errors to go with 62 winners as he went toe-to-toe with the world number 47 over more than four hours on Rod Laver Arena to secure his 100th Australian Open victory.
Millman, who got the better of the Swiss at the 2018 U.S. Open, had all the early momentum and won the opening set before Federer grabbed the second on a tiebreak and the third with a late break of serve.
The tireless Australian was never going to fold, however, and took the fourth set before forcing the third seed to battle back from a break down to seal the victory in the tiebreak.
Reporting by Nick Mulvenney; Editing by Kevin Liffey