A forehand passing shot from behind the baseline left De Minaur at the net. And he was also breaking serve more than everyone else outside of clay. "Federer also told the girls he had arranged for them to go to a summer camp at the Rafa Nadal Academy. "Personally, for me, that was a very special moment in my career as a tennis player to surprise a fan, or children, like I was able to with Carola and Vittoria today," Federer said. "I didn't think he was real.

!Kygrios having a very friendly chat with the young mascot and Nadal bursts in and shakes the boys hand as they are talking Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra and online; Live text on selected matches on the BBC Sport website and app.Six-time Australian Open champion Roger Federer came from behind to reach the quarter-finals in Melbourne with victory over Marton Fucsovics.The Swiss, 38, beat the Hungarian 4-6 6-1 6-2 6-2 and will play American Tennys Sandgren in the last eight.After losing the first set, Federer breezed through the second and third, winning seven successive games.He twice broke Fucsovics in the fourth set before serving out the win on his third match point. "Federer breezed through his first two matches but he was punished for a sluggish start by Millman and then again by Fucsovics on Sunday.Fucsovics has been in superb form at the Australian Open - the only set he dropped prior to facing Federer was in his first-round win against 13th seed Denis Shapovalov - and he made the first break of the match.The Hungarian capitalised as Federer's backhand let him down and he remained composed to serve out the first set in 37 minutes.However, the Swiss stepped up in the next three sets, breaking Fucsovics early in each one as he grew stronger in his movements.Federer was particularly strong at the net, winning 31 of 37 points from there, and his backhand, particularly down the line, became more fluent as the match possessed.While his forehand could be wayward at times, particularly in the four-minute final game as he looked to close the set out, he was able to come through the match without any more significant problems. And your ability to break there is more dependent on your ability to rally from negative positions on the court than on your return itself.But interestingly, Roger Federer’s career return games winning percentage against top 10 opposition is 22% both on clay and outside of clay.

Jo-Wilfried fired a forehand winner in the third game of the fourth set for another lead, cementing it with a hold at love and sealing the set with four service winners at 5-4, setting up a decider after two and a half hours. Find your nearest court and learn the basics with our guide.Get the latest tennis headlines sent straight to your phone, sign-up to our newsletter and learn where to find us on online. The 20-times Grand Slam champion later played … The momentum was on his side of the court for more than an hour now, barely losing a point on serve in set number four and landing 13 winners and two unforced errors to leave Roger behind. Roger Federer beat David Ferrer 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in just under two hours in Montreal

RTÉ.ie is the website of Raidió Teilifís Éireann, Ireland's National Public Service Broadcaster. And this is where Roger Federer really stood out. With clay factored in, only Nadal and Ferrer were breaking serve more than him.All this points to a massive uphill struggle for anyone facing Roger Federer during his best years of 2004-2007. The lethality of Roger Federer's serve, as well as the serve+1 combination, is obvious. But outside of clay, it drops to 19.91%.Of course, clay is a surface where there is always a higher number of breaks compared to other surfaces. That places him third, marginally behind Outside of clay, Federer broke his top 10 opponents more than anyone else - with a return games winning percentage of 28.26%.The upshot of it all is that from 2004-2007, against the very best players in the world, Roger Federer was holding serve more than everyone else except Ivo Karlovic.


To use comments you will need to have JavaScript enabled. A return winner gave Tsonga a break point in game five, denied by a solid serve from Roger who had to play against another one after a volley winner from the Frenchman.A well-constructed attack from the Swiss kept him safe, blasting two service winners to bring the game home and move 4-1 in front. With no room for errors, the Frenchman scored a break in the third game of the third set with a powerful forehand down the line that barely landed in, holding at 15 to confirm the advantage and delivering another fine service game to forge a 4-1 lead.Serving for the set at 5-4, Tsonga found himself 30-0 down and had to be careful at three deuces, keeping his focus and closing the set with a service winner to reduce the overall deficit and stay in contention. From 2004-07, almost every service game against Federer seemed an uphill struggle - even for the likes of The Swiss never took big cuts at the return like an Andre Agassi or a If we look at overall return games won percentages, Federer is ninth, winning 30.44% of his return games from 2004-07.But perhaps the biggest strength of Federer’s return is how easily he can return the biggest serves on tour.