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Defending Australian Open champion Roger Federer will get his campaign underway against the dangerous, big-serving Slovenian Aljaz Bedene. Join The Roar for live scores from 7pm (AEDT).
Federer blitzed his way to a 2017 title, beating Kei Nishikori, Stan Wawrinka and then Rafael Nadal in his last three matches, all of them going to five sets.
It kicked off an impressive 2017 for the former World No.1. By years end, he had overcome all of the injuries woes which hampered his 2016, risen back to No.2 and won another grand slam at Wimbledon.
His incredible form has shown no signs of slowing down early in 2018 either. He kicked off the year at the Hopman Cup in Perth and came away with three ripping straight-set wins over dangerous opponents Yuichi Sugita, Karen Khachanov and Jack Sock.
That was before the final where he lost a first set tiebreaker to German world No.4 Alexander Zverev before running away with the match, winning 12 of the next 14 games.
A performance of that sort against someone expected to challenge for the Australian Open shows exactly how far ahead Federer is and why few are rating anyone else a chance at taking out the first grand slam of the year.
Bedene will be no push-over though. Breaking the serve of the Slovakian might pose a challenge for Federer, although, even that has been misfiring in recent times.
After being eliminated in the first round of the US Open by Andrey Rublev, he suffered three second-round exits in a row to end his season.
He hasn’t started this year off much better either, going down in the first round of the Sydney International to Frenchman Benoit Paire. It was an ordinary performance from Bedene, even with a decent first serve percentage.
He won just three of ten break points throughout the match, failing to capitalise time and time again. The World No.51 won’t have so many, if any opportunities against a player like Federer though and it’s hard to see how he competes on current form.
Prediction
Federer should be far too good for Bedene, despite the danger presented by the Slovakian. Federer is world No.2 for a reason and generally, a good serve alone won’t put him off.
Federer in straight sets.
Be sure to join The Roar for live scores of this first round fixture from 7pm (AEDT) and don’t forget to add a comment in the section below.
Preview written by Scott Pryde.
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