A distraught John Millman admitted it was heartbreaking to lose in the manner he did to Roger Federer in their third round match at the 2020 Australian Open.
Speaking to the media at the end of his humdinger against Federer, Millman said it would have been better to lose the tie-breaker 10-5 as opposed to going down in the fashion he did. Millman was leading 8-4 in the final set tie-breaker before Federer reeled off six straight points in a jail-break of a comeback to enter the fourth round of the competition.
On a day when Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Caroline Wozniacki and Madison Keys all bit the dust in surprise results, Federer was in the danger of going down as well. In the end, he completed a 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (8) victory at the expense of the Aussie, who had beaten him once before too at a Grand Slam match.
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And speaking to the media, Millman said:
“Probably rather lose (the match tiebreak) like 10-5 or something. Obviously would have been great to have served an ace and have a few (match points) and put it to bed.”
Millman also said he could have gone down in a hurry in the fourth set the way Federer was playing but did well to hold on.
He added:
“It’s not as if (the points I dropped were) double faults or first-ball errors. I went after it. At 8-All, I had a chance, he played a pretty good volley, I’m running full tilt. Missed one line. Again, that would have been a pretty good pass.”
“Then I played a great point I think at 8-9 and he picks the right way. What do you do?” “I know I’ll cop it about that. But … I don’t think there was a whole lot wrong. My friends and family and my support team, they’ll have my back on that one.”
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With this win, Federer moved into the fourth round where he will take on Marton Fucsovics of Hungary. Fucsovics, who had surprised Denis Shapovalov in the first round, dispatched Tommy Paul in his third round victory.
In some of the other men’s singles matches of the day, Novak Djokovic wasted no time in getting past Yohihito Nishioka and set up his fourth round meeting with Diego Schwartzman. Marin Cilic stunned the ninth seeded Roberto Bautista Agut and will take on 32nd-ranked Milos Raonic who got the better of Next Gen star Stefanos Tsitsipas.
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