Roger Federer rolled through his first Australian Open match in straight sets and he will be back in action against Jan-Lennard Struff on Thursday. Second-round action also features a showdown between Dominic Thiem and qualifier Denis Kudla.
Jan-Lennard Struff vs. (2) Roger Federer
Federer and Struff will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers when they collide in round two of the Australian Open on Thursday. Their only previous meeting came two years ago on the grass courts of Halle, where Federer prevailed 6-4, 7-6(3). The 36-year-old went on to triumph at Wimbledon–his second Grand Slam title of the season following success in Melbourne–and he finished No. 2 in the world behind Rafael Nadal. Showing no signs of slowing down in 2018, Federer teamed up with Belinda Bencic to win the Hopman Cup for Switzerland and he routed Aljaz Bedene 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 on Tuesday night.
Struff registers at No. 55 in the world, 11 spots off his career-high ranking. The German played well at his opening tournament of this season in Doha, upsetting Tomas Berdych in a third-set tiebreaker before falling to eventual title winner Gael Monfils in three sets. Struff lost right away in Sydney to Damir Dzumhur, but he capitalized on a favorable first-round draw at the Aussie Open to pummel wild card Soonwoo Kwon 6-1, 6-2, 6-4. The 27-year-old can bring the heat with his serve so he may be able to make a couple of sets competitive by holding on a consistent basis, but it should be mostly routine for Federer.
Pick: Federer in 3 losing 11-14 games
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(5) Dominic Thiem vs. (Q) Denis Kudla
Thiem is No. 5 in the world and a two-time French Open semifinalist, but he has not done anything notable at any other slam–aside from suffering arguably 2017’s worst single-match collapse in a five-set U.S. Open loss to Juan Martin Del Potro. The bottom line is that when he is relegated to a surface other than clay, the 24-year-old Austrian is not the same player. Is that going to change in 2018? The sample size up to this point is too small to be conclusive, but early indications are favorable. Thiem is 4-0 this season (all on hard courts, of course) and 9-0 in total sets. He advanced to the Doha semifinals before withdrawing due to illness and he took care of fellow Doha semifinalist Guido Pella 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 on Tuesday in Melbourne. That was an especially impressive result for Thiem, as Pella was not only in fine form but also 2-0 in the head-to-head series with a pair of straight-set victories over his much higher-ranked opponent.
Up next for the fifth seed on Thursday is a second career contest against Kudla, who lost their only previous encounter 6-3, 6-2 on the hard courts of Brisbane in 2016. The 25-year-old American is struggling down at No. 190 in the rankings, but he is off to a stellar start at Melbourne Park. Kudla qualified for the main draw and ousted compatriot Steve Johnson 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-6(3), 6-2 during first-round action. Johnson has been mired in a considerable slump dating back to last season, so this is a steep step up in competition level for Kudla. Thiem should have no trouble carrying his sudden hard-court confidence with him into the third round Down Under.
Pick: Thiem in 3
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who ya got?
Same picks
I always find that the low ranked players are using wrong strategies when playing against Fed or Rafa.
Playing against Fed, one should play a baseline game and tries to outhit or outlast Fed there, youre not going to beat Fed at the net.
Against Rafa, youre not going to beat him from the baseline so one has to move to the net.
Struff is not going to have many chances at the net so its best that he plays from the baseline.
Struff is just donating crucial UEs to Federer.
I didn’t expect Federer to struggle so much against Struff.
I didn’t expect Thiem to struggle at all vs Kudla!
You have to factor in the weather conditions – 39° C is no joke. No wonder many matches went the distance, Fed almost needed a fourth set but Struff was inapt in holding serve after breaking serve!
I suspect Delpo might be cramping and not injured his legs.
Stan’s out and clearly hurting. DelPo won but was limping badly at the end. At this rate Fed will not have to play well to reach the final.
Delpo will be fine
Welp. I knew there would be a lot of upsets this tournament. Just picked the wrong ones 😂
Love how Courier got Federer to admit to asking for preferential scheduling for cooler night matches. Caught him off guard and fed looked uncomfortable answering the question.
Nothing changes while Rafa and Nole get day matched lol.
https://youtu.be/OiQFeLFsM1k
But Fed answer was super smart. Its their call not his.
Don’t know about super smart, but yeah I think his perspective is right – you ask for day or night matches depending on the conditions/what you prefer, leave it up to the officials. If the officials ever give you an option, take the one that suits. I think it would be silly for any player not to ask, and I would be surprised if the big name players/their teams didn’t.
Where I disagree with Fed is on his point about the conditions like yesterday being part of the game – it’s virtually 40 degrees with dry, windless heat. They should just delay mid afternoon matches until 5:30 – 6PM when cool changes blow across and the temperature goes down. If they won’t do that, at least allow more time between points/games.
Funnily enough for Djokovic, the heat worked for him yesterday (though I doubt the truth of any speculation that he asked for a day match), as Monfils was on top until heat exhaustion took over, at which point he didn’t look in it. Had that one been played at night, as one may have expected given it’s a big match-up, Monfils might’ve won it.
So, Fed again gets the night session with Gasquet. Is he going to play all 7 matches on night ? Thats crazy
Pretty much the norm for Federer. Occasionally plays a day match when temperatures aren’t too high but never once temps get over 34.
Rafa on scheduling:
Rafa: Playing day or night? Of course there is players that play more on night.
Q: Because they sell more tickets or other reasons?
Rafa: You are here since awhile, no? (smiling) You know the same like me why there is players that play the night and others play the day. There is television, there is tickets to sell, there is players that achieve more than others. That’s why some players play in prime time and other ones don’t play in prime time.
That’s easy to understand. It’s not about fair or not fair.