Roger Federer hopes his daughters don’t become tennis stars – preferring them

He notched another service-game win to push it to 5-1 and then broke Dolgopolov for the third time in the set to finish the match in clean straight sets, 6-3, 7-5, 6-1.

Federer’s last Grand Slam win came in Wimbledon in 2012 and the Swiss maestro will be keen to prove his detractors wrong in the current year.

Federer took his record over the Ukrainian to 3-0.

One day after Rafael Nadal crashed out of the Australian Open first round and seven matches went to five sets, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic helped restore order to the proceedings at Melbourne Park.

“Conditions are extremely quick, so you’re not going to find much rhythm”, said Roger Federer.

“I think he did well in Sydney, and that definitely also gave him a bit of a lift if he takes the positives out of the tournament, because wasting match point in a final is not a great thing”. In the second frame, however, the Bulgarian kept making unforced errors at crucial times and, even though he recovered from going a break down early, lost the set after having his serve broken again at 4-5.

Furthermore, Federer was beaten by a far lesser player than Dimitrov in the third-round of last season’s Aussie Open (Andreas Seppi) and displayed a clear vulnerability in losing against world No. 14 Milos Raonic in the final of the ATP Brisbane two weeks ago.

Serena Williams has swiftly moved through to the third round at Melbourne Park with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei in exactly one hour.

The one-man Australian brass band swore his way through an entertaining 6-4, 7-5, 7-6 (7-2) win over Pablo Cuevas, changing his shorts in the second set after what has come to be known in polite circles as a wardrobe malfunction.

Williams though was taking nothing for granted in only her second tour-level match since the US Open in September. “That’s why I’ve been playing really well”, Nishikori said.

“They don’t get so excited watching me play”, the 17-time major champion said.

Searching for his first Australian Open title in five years, Federer was untroubled by Dolgopolov’s unorthodox tactics. “Then second set was the key, because it was close for a while”.

“We have, I think, a sport (that has) evolved and upgraded our programs and authorities to deal with these particular cases”, he said.

Sharapova, who won the title here in 2008 and has reached three other finals, completed the win in 71 minutes and will next play either Lauren Davis of the US or Magadalena Rybarikova of Slovakia. The players said they have known the issue existed but they doubt any top players have been involved. Had some great practice sessions together there, this year and last year.

When Roger was up against Alexandr Dolgopolov, his daughters, Myla and Charlene were spotted engrossed in their books rather than enjoying their dad’s game at the Australian Open now underway.