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Federer no.20 goes beyond greatness

27 January 2018

The Swiss legend achieves another incredible milestone of his unimaginable career after winning his 20^th major at the Australian Open.

The world no.2 wasn’t challenged by anyone during his run in Melbourne, but things got much more difficult in the final against Marin Cilic.

The match

Roger was off to a fantastic start to grab a quick 4-0 against Marin that was able to win just 4 points in the first 4 games. That was enough for Federer to win the opener 6-2.

Even if Roger looked to be better than a recovering Cilic in the second set, the Swiss didn’t capitalize on Marin’s flimsy service games. Eventually, the Swiss Maestro was ”punished,” and he lost the set at the breaker.

Things looked extremely good for Roger again after he won the 3^rd set without much struggle (6-3) and he was 1 break up after Cilic lost his service game at the beginning of the 4^th set.

After grabbing a 3-1 lead in the 4^th set it seemed that Roger was destined to win the contest with ease, but then the Swiss had amnesia that lasted 5 games (from 3-1 to 6-3 for Cilic) that put him in a very difficult position at the start of the 5^th set.

Marin looked to be the favorite in the decider with Federer clearly struggling with his tennis. Eventually, the Swiss Legend managed to hold a very tough opening game before Cilic imploded in the following game (2-0 Federer). Roger managed to hold his serve soon after (he was still shaking) to grab an important 3-0 lead. Even if he was behind in the world no.2, Cilic was well aware that he still had a chance as Roger was “not perfect”; Marin held his serve at love (3-1) before Federer replied as a champion to hold his serve at love (4-1). That was game over: Cilic caved in to concede his following service game winning only 1 point (5-1), and Federer held his service game at love again to win the match 6-2 6-7 (5) 6-3 3-6 6-1 after 3 hours and 2 minutes.

The records

This is Roger’s 20^th slam, the 6 Australian Open and his 96^th title. He will definitely try to get to 100 career titles and grab his 9^th Wimbledon.