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AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 26, 2020

Roger Federer

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

R. FEDERER/M. Fucsovics

4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What changed for you after the first set tonight? Were you surprised at all that the first set went against you?
ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, I mean, I guess I was surprised a little bit both ways. I couldn't get into the match better, but happens I guess. He's a good player.

In the second set I was not sure, I was able to turn it around like that... I thought he had his rhythm. I didn't have mine. If things end up not really playing out well in the beginning of that second set, it could turn out very complicated. Didn't happen.

Next thing you know, I'm up 6-1, 3-Love basically. Things went very quick. I think it's good for me to know that I can put, like, streaks like this together. I think in any tournament I played very well, I had those streaks happening at some point.

It was nice especially off the Millman match, after losing the first set, that I had that in me, at the end I was able to control things. So that was nice tonight.

Q. About recovery after Friday's match. What do you actually have to go through? Ice baths... How is that different from dealing with a long match three or four or five years ago?
ROGER FEDERER: I'm a guy that doesn't do ice baths. I tried it once, didn't like it, so I'll never do it again.

I'm still doing the things like I used to: trying to sleep enough, take a massage and a stretch. That's it really. Do that for as much as I can to get ready.

Yeah, I always wonder also how other players feel after a match like this. Most important is that you're not carrying any injury away from a match like this because fatigue is one thing, you can deal with that with I think mental strength.

Actually I'm very happy how I'm feeling considering my age, considering everything I've gone through throughout my career. The toughness of the first real tough match of the season for me after having not played these kind of matches for some time, it's nice to see that the work I did in the off-season paid off.

But, no, my stuff I do off court is very, very routine and very simple.

Q. Thoughts on playing Tennys Sandgren? An odd career, ranked 100, but four top-10 wins at Grand Slams already.
ROGER FEDERER: I mean, I wonder why he's not ranked higher, to be honest. Every time I see him play, I feel like he plays very well. He's got a lot of stuff in his game that he's deserving of being higher. I don't know if he's been injured or not in the last season, to be honest. I didn't follow him that closely.

I mean, I remember he played Chung in the quarters the last time I played the semis, to play Chung with his blisters and all that. I remember watching that closely because I was going to maybe play the winner if I beat -- I don't remember who I played in the quarters that year.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to that match because I've seen him play a lot, but never played him. You always wonder on TV sometimes it always looks better than it could be in real. All of a sudden you face him, it's going to be this big and this strong.

I watched quite a little bit today against Fognini because it was exciting, it was close, and it's as I was waiting anyhow.

No, it was impressive how he was competing. I'm looking forward to a tough one. Clearly also mentally potentially ready to switch to the day session as I've been indoor at night throughout this tournament.

Q. Would you like it to be day for faster conditions with him?
ROGER FEDERER: Doesn't matter. At the end of the day every Grand Slam you play and you try to win, you have to go through all conditions. Tonight was very fresh. You could see by - how do you say - the statistics, not that I love statistics, but he had one ace. It shows you how slow things were tonight.

Day session gives you other opportunities. Night does also present different options, too. But tonight it definitely felt very slow.

Q. What sort of challenge are you expecting from him physically? When you've not played someone before, what sort of analysis do you do the 24 hours before?
ROGER FEDERER: The good thing is you have enough time here. It's not like at a Masters 1000 or 500 or 250 where you finish late, then next thing you know you got to play again at 6 p.m. the next day, scrambling to get all the info together.

In some ways you also want to focus a little bit on what just happened. You have to get ready, go to sleep, bang, you get ready for a new player.

Here we have enough time. We're not going to talk about it tonight. Maybe at some point tomorrow. It's the first time I'm playing against Sandgren. Today, for instance, I knew Marton quite well. We only spoke about the match today. And it was night session, so we also had time.

It will be interesting to know at one point when I play Sandgren it's day or night, so maybe we also decide whether we start speaking about it tomorrow. I assume that's what we'll do.

I think the coaches have seen him quite a bit. They'll try to get some more info, maybe look into how he's played in the past against maybe players like me. I'm not sure. We'll go from there.

I like how he moves. Very explosive. Has a nice first serve as well. He can counter-punch, but also likes to go on the attack. Reminds me a little bit of the olden days when you would do the transition game very good and very quickly. I feel like that's what I've seen a lot of him doing very well.

Q. You were training partners with Marton a few years ago. Compared to tonight and two years ago, did anything surprise you tonight about his game? What changed?
ROGER FEDERER: I mean, conditions I think are the biggest change that I've felt. The day session when we played against each other was completely different feel. Also was our first match we've played. When it's the first one, you always feel very different.

I think he's just a very steady player. You know what you're going to get. He's not going to, per se, surprise you other than maybe just his continuous strength that he shows mentally, physically, all that stuff.

He really played a great tournament. He beat three young guys, through a tough section, to make it to the fourth round.

I was surprised also, like Sandgren, that he's not ranked higher. I think a lot of Marton. I think through this result, it's going to give him a lot of confidence moving forward, and we'll see him back in the top 50 very, very soon.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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