Roger Federer is about to start his title defense at the Australian Open and he sounds extremely confident (but cautious).
Roger will face the no.99 Denis Istomin in the first round strong of a 6-0 H2H record. However, Roger is very well aware that Istomin can be a tricky customer as he defeated Novak Djokovic in the 2nd round of the Australian Open in 2017 and Roger had to work hard to beat him in their last 2 matches in Basel where he had to recover from, a-set-down on both occasions.
Why Federer is confident
During the pre-tournament press conference, Roger explained why he feels so confident to say
“I’m playing good tennis. I’m confident that I think it needs a good performance by my opponent probably to beat me.
What I can say is the off-season was great for me. I think maybe it showed a little bit at the Hopman Cup already. Again, look, I’m playing tomorrow. We’ll see how it’s going to be here in Melbourne.
I think the focus really is on those early rounds, especially tomorrow. I know what Denis did to Novak. I watched basically the entire game a couple years ago when he beat Novak here.
I’ve had some tough ones against him in the past. He can play well in fast courts, and that’s what it’s going to be a little bit here as well.”
Roger and Denis will play on Monday 2nd match at the Rod Laver Arena. They should start around 9 pm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q01Q0H-Ixi0
