Federer wins 300th Grand Slam match

He reached the milestone at Rod Laver Arena on Friday, when he moved into the fourth round of the Australian Open with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory over Grigor Dimitrov.

Meanwhile, Dimitrov, who is seeded 27th and the current World No. 28, beat Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi, 6-3 7-6 (6) 6-3 and Argentina’s Marco Trungelliti, 6-3 4-6 6-2 7-5 in the first two rounds to set up the huge match-up against Federer.

“I’m pleased. It wasn’t easy”, said Federer.

Maria Sharapova also weathered a fightback when she beat pint-sized American Lauren Davis 6-1, 6-7 (5/7), 6-0, helped by a strategic break and change of dress, for her 600th career win.

“It’s a little odd from time to time, I feel like he picks up the ball on the backhand and the forehand (like me)”, Federer said in a courtside interview. Serving efficiently, Federer also capitalised on a growing error count from the Bulgarian, who had 44 by the end of the match.

Elsewhere in the men’s draw, there were wins for Kei Nishikori, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Goffin. It felt like Kyrgios’ antics were being watched more than his tennis half the time, but all in all the controversial Aussie kept things tame (by his standards).

As for Sharapova, who won the third-round match 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-0, she sticks to energy bars and gels for her on-court snacking.

“It’s actually something that I had to add, because I was getting really frustrated losing to my hitting partner all the time”.

The first two sets went to a tiebreaker, but after Goffin took the first it was Federer who stormed back to win the next three sets.

Nishikori reached the 2014 U.S. Open final and the quarterfinals at the Australian and French Opens in 2015 before withdrawing from his second-round match at Wimbledon with an injured left leg.

I’d want around [1.8] or so before siding with Berdych in that one and there’s probably better value in the [5.5] about Berdych winning the opener 7-6.

The 48-minute first set went in Federer’s favour behind a service break at 3-all, the only interruption the opening, then closing, of Rod Laver Arena’s retractable roof due to rain. Losses like that always hurt, but in the same time I just lately haven’t played those kind of matches I think. Grigor gave Roger everything he could handle through the first 2 sets, but Roger cruised through the final two sets to advance to another round of 16.

As the most senior man in more than a decade to reach the Australian Open’s fourth round – Andre Agassi, at age 34 and 276 days was 100 days older as a 2005 quarterfinalist – Federer has developed a lofty position from which to offer advice.

Defending champions and top-ranked Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic had matches starting at the same time on nearby courts.

Unlike Sharapova, who has lost to Williams in their last 17 matches, Bencic beat the No1 seed in Toronto a year ago.