Roger Federer continued his quest for an 18th Grand Slam title by defeating Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-3, 7-5, 6-1, in the second round of the Australian Open.
It was an impressive start from the 34-year-old Swiss player, who dropped only four points on his serve during the first set. In comparison Dolgopolov endured issues with his first service due to a combination of nerves as well as aggressive play from Federer. The world No.35 could only get 33% of his first serves in, winning 63% of them. Despite his opponents trouble with his service, Federer still faced tough opposition. The sole break in the opening set occurred in the sixth games when the Swiss broke to love as he carefully guided himself to take the first set after only 27 minutes of play in the Rod Laver Arena.
The Swiss had a double opportunity to hand another blow to Dolgopolov at the start of the second set, but failed to convert his two break point opportunities. As Dolgopolov increased his service consistency, Federer found himself in a more testing encounter with ten games going with serve. As the set seemed destined to go into a tiebreaker, Federer launched another offensive. During a long game, where Dolgopolov was serving, Federer produced a masterful slice backhand to force his opponent to return the ball into the net. The unforced error from the Ukrainian handed the third seed the break to move ahead 6-5. The set was sealed when a speedy serve out wide from the 34-year-old resulted in Dolgopolov being unable to return it over the net.
Leading by two sets, Federer eased himself to the match after breaking the 27-year-old three consecutive times. Aided by four aces and 10 winners during the third set, the third seed dismantled his opponent to progress to the third round of the tournament for the 17th consecutive year. The match was won with a spectacular backhand down the line from Federer.
During his straightforward win, Federer fired 25 aces and produced 39 winners. Following his second round triumph, Federer said that the fast condition in a Melbourne aided his win against Dolgopolov.
“I’m very happy. The conditions are extremely quick so you are not going to find that much rhythm out there,” Federer said.
“Aleksandr can play great when you give him too much time, so maybe it wasn’t a bad thing that it was as fast as it was.
“But I served well and as the match went on I started to feel better and better, but the second set was crucial and I’m glad I got it done.”
This Swiss later added that he thinks his second round opponent ‘is better than a lot of guys ranked ahead of him’. Dolgopolov is currently ranked 35th in the world, but has been as high as 12th back in 2012.
Today’s win is Federer’s 299th Grand Slam victory. In the next round he will play Grigor Dimitrov for a chance to get his 300th win. Dimitrov moved to the third round after defeating Argentina’s Marco Trungelliti in four sets (6-2,4-6,6-2,7-5). The 34-year-old currently has a 100% winning record against the Bulgarian. Their last meeting was two weeks ago in Brisbane where Federer took the match in three sets. If he wins his third round encounter, Federer will become the first player in the Open Era to reach 300 Grand Slam wins.
Federer’s after match press conference
