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John Millman has been in impressive form, but the pressure will be on to continue that when he faces 28th seed Damir Dzumhur in the second round of the Australian Open. Join The Roar for live scores from around 3pm (AEDT).
The Aussie has been in superb form to kick off 2018. He cut his off-season to just over a month after missing parts of 2017 due to injury, winning a challenger event in Thailand to end last year.
It’s worked a treat for Millman, who by all reports was in good form on the practice courts.
He showed it in Brisbane and Sydney, winning convincingly in the first round of both tournaments against Peter Polansky and Alexei Popyrin respectively.
While he lost to seeded players Grigor Dimitrov and Gilles Muller in the second round of each, he fought hard in both matches, even taking a set off the world No.3 in Brisbane.
The first round at the Australian Open was supposed to test Millman thoroughly. He took on the up-and-coming Borna Coric, cruising to victory in a straight-sets thumping.
The level of play the Australian was able to maintain against Coric was superb and matched up with the rest of his phenomenal summer.
It leaves him in good stead for this second-round match against Dzumhur as he looks to back up a third-round exit at last year’s Australian Open, his best performance at any grand slam to date.
Unlike Millman, Dzumhur has been struggling for form, battling an injury as well. He lost to Denis Istomin in the first round of the Brisbane International, before heading to Sydney where he performed marginally better, picking up a win over Jan-Lennard Struff.
It’s the only time so far in 2018 Dzumhur has looked remotely like himself, moving freely around the court and hitting the middle of the racquet.
Alex De Minaur proved to be a step too far in the second round though, with the Bosnian retiring in the second set, already down 6-2, 3-0.
A gruelling first round match at the Australian Open proved he was fit enough, but will take plenty out of him ahead of this match. Dzumhur took five sets to get to the second round, eventually winning 3-6, 2-6, 7-6, 6-2, 6-4.
One thing Millman is sure to do is turn this into another physical battle and with one already under the belt, that won’t suit the 28th seed.
The pair have played just once previously with Dzumhur winning in straight sets. The winner of this sets up a third-round match with either world No.1 Rafael Nadal or Leonardo Mayer.
Prediction
Millman has been on fire this summer and with Dzumhur likely to be fatigued, he needs to win this in straight sets. That won’t be happening though.
Millman in five sets.
Be sure to join The Roar for live scores from around 3pm (AEDT) or at the completion of Kirsten Flipkens vs Magdalena Rybarikoa on Show Court 3 and don’t forget to add a comment below.