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After almost being eliminated by one Australian last night, Roger Federer will now face another one in James Duckworth, as he looks to make the semi-finals of the Brisbane International. Join The Roar for a live blog of the match from 8:00pm AEDT.
Last night, Roger Federer got a massive fright, as Australian John Millman had a set and a break lead over the former world number 1.
Unfortunately for the Aussie, Federer was able to fight back, and win 11 of the next 15 games to win the match.
Tonight he faces another Australian, James Duckworth, who made his first ever ATP World Tour quarter final yesterday against Jarkko Nieminen.
After losing the first set 6-4 to the Finnish player, Duckworth had to deal with two match points at 6-5 down in the second set.
The Aussie was able to save them both and then win the tiebreaker to bring the match into a deciding set.
From then on, it was all Duckworth, who won the third set 6-3 to seal his debut quarter final. The win was just his 8th on the ATP world tour.
Tonight he faces one of the biggest challenges on the tour in Roger Federer. It is a battle he has already had though after the duo faced each other last year at the Australian Open.
In the first round battle Federer was too strong. He won 6-4 6-4 6-2 in 106 minutes. I expect a similar score line tonight but that could change because of the rustiness of the Fed Express.
It was clear last night that Federer wasn’t at his best. He struggled at times with his concentration and made plenty of unforced errors.
If that happens again tonight then Duckworth is a big chance of putting Federer under pressure. His serve is better than Millman’s and he has more variety in his game than his fellow Australian.
He is solid at the net and likes to move around to win the point. Having said all of that I expect a different Federer tonight.
As the tournament progresses he will get better and better.
It will be interesting to see if he gets to a higher level tonight than last night.
Regardless of the level Federer plays tonight, Duckworth needs to play extremely well to win tonight.
His serve needs to be strong, as it was against Nieminen. He served 16 aces against the Finn and also saved seven of the nine break points he had. He also won 77% of his first serves.
Tonight he must do the same, and land plenty of first serves against the Fed Express.
In their last match against each other, Duckworth conceded 17 break points, and only served at 52% on the first serve.
Those figures need to improve tonight if he is any chance of beating the world number 2.
Duckworth’s forehand also needs to fire tonight. That shot is his weapon and he needs to hit plenty of winners to be in contention.
This promises to be a fantastic match between one player out of form, and another in the form of his life.
Federer should still win the match tonight though and I expect him to bounce back after last night.
Duckworth will be competitive for a set and a half but at some stage Federer will bounce back. When he finds his form Duckworth will be no match for him.
Prediction: Federer 2-0
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