It was truly a slow start but a fast finish by Federer who battled back from 0-1 against Fucsovics to win it, in quite dominant fashion. Afterwards, he said:
“It was a tough start, I thought Marton played clean. I guess it was the rest of the Millman match, that guy gave me a beatdown from the baseline, so maybe it took my confidence away a little bit and I think it just took some time."
Many wondered if Federer would be able to recover in time for this match. He reflected how eager he was to play again:
"The morning after John’s match and this morning, I lay in bed for like an hour and I was like, ‘When are we going to stand up?’… I’m good. I was able to recover and play a good match, so I am sure I am going to feel better with every day that goes by after that match.”
Speaking to McEnroe he joked a bit about his next opponent saying:
"He was not going to be a baseball player, that’s for sure, with that name. It’s unreal actually. I am looking forward to playing against him. I have never played against Tennys. I have played a lot of tennis in my life, but never against Tennys."
It should be an interesting match because the American has shown quite a bit of fighting spirit at this year's Australian Open and we already saw that hose players can be a bit tricky for Roger at this stage of his career.