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Sunday, January 22, 2017
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MELBOURNE – A rampaging Roger Federer delivered a stunning reminder of his class with a crushing 6-2 6-4 6-4 win over Tomas Berdych to storm into the fourth round of the Australian Open on Friday.
Seeded 17th and playing only his third tour match since a long layoff with a knee injury, Federer was expected to be tested by the hard-hitting Czech but he sent the 10th seed packing in 90 minutes.
The 35-year-old Swiss had shown rust in his earlier matches but was in spell-binding touch with 40 winners and completed the master class at a floodlit Rod Laver Arena with an imperious crosscourt backhand.
“It was a great mental test for me to see if I could stay in the match point for point, keep rolling,” said a glowing Federer, who cracked jokes in his post-match news conference and will next face fifth seed Kei Nishikori brimful of confidence.
“I was able to do that. That’s where I’m just really happy that I was able to deliver that. From the baseline, honestly I felt worlds better than in the first couple of rounds. Yeah, it’s wonderful.”
Switched on from the first point, Federer bullied Berdych at the net and denied him a single break point as 11-times grand slam champion Laver soaked up the performance.
For the Berdych camp, it was a horror show and the Czech was reduced to scrapping for speculative points with clumsy, desperate rushes to the net. (Reuters)
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