The 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer took a medical timeout in the third set out while trailing 3-0 but still struggled with his movements.
Switzerland's Roger Federer speaks with former US tennis player Jim Courier after his victory against Tennys Sandgren of the US in their men's singles quarter-final match on day nine of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 28, 2020. (Photo by William WEST / AFP)
Roger Federer staged one of the greatest escapes of his 22-year long career to reach the semifinal of the ongoing Australian Open on Tuesday. The world number three saved seven match points to complete an astonishing victory of 6-3, 2-6, 2-6, 7-6(8), 6-3 over Tennys Sandgren at the Rod Laver Arena.
After winning the first set, Federer lost the following two sets and were trailing 4-5 in the fourth set while serving. He erased three match points and won the break to bring level into the match. He eventually won the set on tiebreakers but not before saving another four match points.
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Meanwhile, the 20-time Grand Slam champion also took a medical timeout in the third set out while trailing 3-0. Federer still struggled with his movements and his serve speed became slower as well. However, the Swiss maestro kept on fighting despite losing the set 2-6.
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The six-time Australian Open champion was prone to unforced errors and gifted many a point to Sandgren. The American looked to possess more clarity in his approach as he hit 27 aces in comparison to Federer’s 5.
Sandgren also won more receiving points and the tally of total points was also led by him with 161, while Federer managed 160. With 24 games, the 24-year-old got one more than Federer and rightly so the latter admitted that he was “lucky” to win the match.
”You’ve got to get lucky sometimes. I was just hoping that maybe he wasn’t going to smash a winner, if he misses one or two [match points], who knows what’s going to happen? I think I got incredibly lucky today,” Federer was quoted as saying on the official website of ATP Tour.
The 38-year-old will next face the winner of the quarter-final match between Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka.
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