World No.3 Roger Federer showed little signs of rustiness throughout his comprehensive opening win at the Australian Open against America’s Steve Johnson.
The Swiss third seed dropped only six games during his 6-3, 6-2, 6-1, triumph over the American on Rod Laver Arena. A player who entered Melbourne high in confidence after winning a Challenger tournament in Bendigo last week. He extends his overall winning head-to-head record against Johnson to 3-0. The encounter was Federer’s first match on the ATP Tour this year after he decided to skip the ATP Cup.
“I’m very happy. It’s nice to be back here is Australia.” Said Federer.
“I felt really good, so it was a really good first round from me.”
Despite his lack of match play in recent weeks, the 38-year-old seemed to be at ease on the court by breaking his rival five times in total. Against Johnson, he remained unbroken throughout the match by saving the only break point he faced. Overall, Federer won an impressive 80% of his first service points as he hit 30 winners to only 13 unforced errors.
Prior to his latest grand slam campaign, Federer said he had no expectations for the tournament. Even though he has won it in two out of the past three years. He credits his current form to a successful off-season, where he also played a series of exhibition matches across South America and China.
“I’m very happy,” he said, citing a productive off season training block.
“I trained really hard like I always do. I’m just so happy that I didn’t have any setbacks and that sets you up really nicely for the season. Regardless of how it goes here, you just know you have that block in you. In practice I felt good, and I’m happy it showed on the court as well.”
Monday’s win is the 21st time in Federer’s career he has won his opening match at the tournament in what is a new record. Since making his Australian Open debut back in 2000, he has won 98 out of 112 matches played. Winning the tournament six times, which is the second highest tally in history after Novak Djokovic.
“I remember coming here for juniors in 1998 and then played qualies in the following year. I remember beating Michael Chang in my first main draw here [in 2000],” Federer said. “That was fun. Now he’s coaching against me [with Kei Nishkori], but we’re good friends because our kids are friends with his kids.”
In the second round Federer will play either France’s Quentin Halys or Serbia’s Filip Krajinović.
