MELBOURNE – Roger Federer regained control after a slow start against Hungarian Marton Fucsovics to march into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open with a 4-6 6-1 6-2 6-2 win on a chilly evening at the Rod Laver Arena on Sunday.
The six-time Australian Open winner, who was two points from defeat against John Millman in his previous round, looked rusty in the first set with Fucsovics breaking him in the seventh game to win the set.
But the 38-year-old Swiss, a 20-times Grand Slam winner, soon shifted up a gear and broke Fucsovics early in each of the next three sets to reach the Australian quarter-finals for the 15th time.
The third-seeded Federer will now face American Tennys Sandgren, who defeated No. 12 seed Fabio Fognini of Italy 7-6(5) 7-5 6-7(2) 6-4 earlier on Sunday to reach the quarter-final stage of the Australian Open for only the second time..
Interestingly, both Federer and the controversial Sandgren have South African-born mothers.