BLAZING START
Flawless Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic stamped their mark on the Australian Open on Tuesday. The ageless Swiss marvel, rated as the favourite to win his 20th Grand Slam title, thrilled the Rod Laver Arena crowd with a virtuoso performance. The second seed cruised to a 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 win in 1hr 39min and will next play German JanLennard Struff.
It improved his Australian Open record to 88-13 in his 19th campaign Down Under. Federer, who insists he is too old at 36 to be rated the tournament favourite, put away the 51stranked Slovenian with a catalogue of his signature shot-making. “My dream was always to play a long time on tour and we had a few guys playing a long time and I think that inspired me,” he said post-match. “I’m loving it and hopefully I can play for a little longer.”
Federer raced to the first set in 26 minutes and claimed the second on his fourth set point as Bedene raised his level.
The Swiss great thrilled the centre court night crowd with an exquisite curving forehand down the line and past Bedene for another service break early in the final set.
Federer is coming off an extraordinary 2017, when he won a fifth Australian Open title and a record eighth at Wimbledon, and the way things are shaping there could be yet more glory with his main threats scrambling
I’m hoping for it to go well again, I’m not sure it can go this well because last year was so good
Roger Federer
to be ready. It was in Melbourne a year ago where he lit the fuse on his late-life tennis renaissance, beating Tomas Berdych, Kei Nishikori, Mischa Zverev and Stan Wawrinka before downing great rival Rafael Nadal in a five-set final classic.
“I was thinking a lot about what happened at the tournament last year because it was my favourite tournament of the whole season ... it was such a surprise,” Federer said. “I’m hoping for it to go well again, I’m not sure it can go this well because last year was so good. “I’m a year older and guys are coming back ... I can’t control it all. Last year was last year ... it could be my favourite year of my career. I’ll keep working hard and see what happens at the end.”
Twelve-time Grand Slam winner Djokovic has been out of action for six months with an elbow injury, but he too looked the goods in his 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 demolition of American Donald Young.
The Serbian former world number looked in good fettle as he worked his way into the second round where he will play Frenchman Gael Monfils.
Djokovic, wearing a fleshcoloured protective guard on his right serving elbow, saluted the cheering crowd as he won on his sixth match point. “It felt great to be back on the court and compete again. It’s been a while. Obviously, you don’t know how you’re going to start off,” he said.
“I was putting a lot of hours on the court in the last couple weeks, and I played a lot of practice sets, and I had only one match leading up to this tournament in Kooyong.
“In more or less all of these practice sessions, I could feel that I’m hitting the ball well. So I was hoping this is going to obviously continue and be transferred into the first round of Australian Open.
“The first two sets went extremely well, considering that I haven’t played for six months. The third was up and down a little bit, but in general it was a great performance.” It was an impressive return to action with the Serb breaking Young’s lefthanded serve six times, hitting 33 winners and conceding only 27 unforced errors.
“I did have various emotions, mostly good ones: excitement, joy, gratitude for being able to have an opportunity to compete,” Djokovic added. “About three weeks ago I didn’t know whether I’m going to play in Australia or not. I was looking forward to getting out on the court and compete.”
The former world number one added: “It’s fine. I won a straightset match. After six months, there’s not much to say in a negative note about it.”—