With the landmark win, Federer also extends his record over Bulgarian 27th seed Dimitrov, dubbed Baby Fed because of the similarity in their playing styles, to 5-0.
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Another straight-sets victory, this time in the second round of Wimbledon in 2006, helped Federer march towards his fourth All England crown.
It was one-way traffic thereafter as Federer sealed victory in two hours and 40 minutes to set up a fourth-round meeting with Belgium’s David Goffin. “Is this friendly reminder that I’m getting old?” “I don’t think about those numbers until I finish the match and someone does mention it. I think it’s a good fact that I’ve been able to win that many matches”. “So I just have to be focused on what I have to do, like every match, to be aggressive and take every opportunity as I can”.
Federer was asked about the achievement post-match and the 17-time grand slam victor was understandably thrilled. It had been closed for Maria Sharapova’s earlier three-set win over American Lauren Davis, but it was re-opened for the start of the men’s match Friday.
“I’d rather support them in another sport”, Federer said. I have nothing more to say. That was the situation (yesterday). “I wish I could have maybe been tougher when I was younger in practice but I guess that’s just how it needed to be. We’re not that far down the road where it’s so professional where you can’t even look at the guy before you walk on court”.
Roger Federer’s illustrious career collected another milestone on Friday as he clocked up a 300th grand slam win at the Australian Open.
When he reached eighth in the world and made the Wimbledon semifinals two years ago, it seemed like Dimitrov was well on his way to mixing it with the elite on a regular basis.
Having celebrated his 1,000th tour win in Brisbane previous year, Federer was tickled by the idea of notching up his 300th in grand slams. It was a big deal for me.Federer is now 67 wins ahead of No. 2 and long-retired Jimmy Connors in terms of Grand Slam singles wins, so the mark is safe for a while.Its not something I ever aimed for but when it happens, its very special, he said. “If you look at the positive side, he should have, could have won the tournament”, Federer said via the tournament’s official website.
Murray has barely broken sweat in his opening two rounds in Melbourne after sailing past Germany’s Alexander Zverev 6-1 6-2 6-3 and then thrashing Australian Sam Groth 6-0 6-4 6-1 to make round three.
“He’s got the game to be really risky”.
“It’s been a very good start, for sure”.
“It’s hard to know as a player whether you’re going to go out there and hit the ball great or not, you just have to try to trust all of the preparation and practice that you’ve done”.
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Easily outstripping her previous second round best at the tournament, Bencic also became the first Swiss woman to reach the fourth round at Melbourne Park since her mentor Martina Hingis and Patty Schnyder in 2007.
