Federer suffers big scare at Australian Open
World tennis number one Roger Federer of Switzerland had to endure a tough battle on Saturday to reach the last sixteen of the Australian Open championship in Melbourne.
Federer, who had breezed through earlier rounds, scrambled to defeat world number 49 Serb Janko Tipsarevic 6-7, 7-6, 5-7, 6-1 and 10-8. The thriller match lasted four hours and 27 minutes.
The Swiss lost the first set, having served for it at 5-3, but hit back to level, only to lose the third after holding two set points on Tipsarevic’s service in the tenth game.
Federer, chasing his 13th grand slam title, levelled and after a tense final set, broke in the 17th game and served out to clinch victory.
“What a great battle. Fair play. He’s a nice guy – pity somebody has to win, wish we could have draws sometimes too,” Federer said afterwards.
“This is where you get grey hair early in life. Pity for him, but what a great victory for me,” he added.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.