Six-time champion Roger Federer survived a huge scare to beat unseeded Australian John Millman 10-8 in a final-set tie-break to reach the Australian Open fourth round |
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.