Tennis round-up: Federer and Raonic through in Chennai, Spaniards star in Brisbane

Sport360 staff 20:36 08/01/2015
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Fight on his hands: Federer struggled past John Millman in India.

    Swiss tennis star Roger Federer won his 997th match on the ATP Tour on Thursday, but not before surviving an almighty scare from Australian wildcard John Millman at the Brisbane International.

    – A day with Judy Murray: Super mum, super service
    – Federer dreaming of winning Aus Open and Wimbledon

    Playing his first match of the year after receiving a first round bye, world number two Federer had to come from a set and a break down to overhaul Millman 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in just over two hours.

    Federer was out of sorts throughout the match against a player ranked 151 places below him, making 38 unforced errors — most of them in the opening set-and-a-half.

    Millman, on the other hand, played some brilliant tennis, spurred on by the emotion of playing in front of family and friends on his home court.

    Two years ago he took a set off Britain's Andy Murray at the Brisbane International before fading away.

    Millman was out of the game for 12 months from May 2013 with a shoulder injury and has only played lower level Challenger tournaments since then.

    He has won just three matches on the main ATP Tour in his career, two of those in Brisbane, and has US$261,000 in prize money, compared with Federer's $88.6 million. 

    But for much of the match there appeared little difference between the two as Millman lifted and Federer struggled to find his touch.

    Valiant effort: John Millman.

    Millman, 25, stunned the capacity crowd at Pat Rafter Arena when he broke Federer to take the first set, then broke again to lead 3-1 in the second.

    But Federer noticeably lifted a level, breaking straight back before breaking Millman's next serve to force a decider.

    The Swiss maestro took advantage of his tiring opponent to ease away with the third set in 37 minutes.

    Federer now plays another Australian wildcard, James Duckworth, in the quarter-finals following his 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 win over Finland's Jarkko Nieminen.

    Through: Milos Raonic.

    Earlier, Canada's Milos Raonic fired off 17 aces in his 6-3, 6-4 win over Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan.

    Raonic ended the year ranked eighth in the world and, along with Grigor Dimitrov and Kei Nishikori, is seen as one of the men most likely to end the dominance of Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.

    Elsewhere in Chennai, Spanish second seed Feliciano Lopez crashed out of the $450,000 ATP Chennai Open on Thursday in a stunning second-round loss to qualifier Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia.

    The world number 14 looked rusty in his first match of the season as he tamely went down 6-4, 6-4 to the 156th-ranked Bedene in an hour and 25 minutes at the Nungambakkam tennis stadium.

    Progressing: Feliciano Lopez.

    Two other Spaniards, third seed Roberto Bautista-Agut and number five Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, advanced to the quarter-finals.

    The 15th-ranked Bautista-Agut proved too strong for number 102 Peter Gojowczyk of Germany, cruising to a 6-3, 6-2 win in an hour and 10 minutes.

    Bautista-Agut, a finalist in Chennai in 2013, struggled with his first serve and double-faulted four times, but six aces and strong volleys from the baseline helped him dominate the German.

    The 31-year-old Garcia-Lopez fought back after losing the first set to oust Tatsuma Ito of Japan 6-7 (1-7), 6-2, 6-0 in two hours on an outside court.

    In Friday's quarter-finals, Garcia-Lopez will take on Bedene.

    Taiwanese veteran Yen Hsun-Lu rode past Pablo Carreno-Busta of Spain 6-4, 6-4 in 73 minutes to set up a quarter-final clash against Bautista-Agut.

    The tournament, which also features world number four and defending Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, will earn the winner on Sunday $73,400 and 250 ranking points.

    Recommended