MELBOURNE, Australia — Roger Federer was not going to go gently, of course, no matter how daunting the number of match points (his opponent accumulated seven), no matter how achy his 38-year-old legs, no matter how slow his serves and no matter how off-target his groundstrokes.
Federer still plays for the love of these stages and circumstances. He still yearns for more trophies, too. Down to his very last gasp, time and again, against someone a decade younger, 100th-ranked Tennys Sandgren of the United States, Federer somehow pulled off a memorable comeback to reach the Australian Open semifinals for the 15th time.
Despite all sorts of signs that he was not quite himself for much of the match, Federer beat the biceps-baring, hard-hitting, court-covering Sandgren 6-3, 2-6, 2-6, 7-6 (8), 6-3 on Tuesday in a rollicking quarterfinal that appeared to be over long before it was.
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“As the match went on, I started to feel better again, and all the pressure went away,” 20-time Grand Slam champion Federer said afterward, mentioning that his groin muscle was bothering him. “I don’t deserve this one, but I’m standing here, and I’m obviously very, very happy.”
He will face defending champion Novak Djokovic or No. 32 Milos Raonic next. Djokovic entered his quarterfinal Tuesday night with a 9-0 head-to-head edge against Raonic, whose best Grand Slam showing is a runner-up finish at Wimbledon four years ago.
Federer vs. Sandgren was as dramatic as can be.
Federer was involved in a dispute with the chair umpire over cursing. He left the court for a medical timeout early in the third set, then was visited by a trainer later for a right leg massage.
Above all, he found himself in a tense tussle with Sandgren, a 28-year-old from Tennessee who has never been a major semifinalist and was trying to become the lowest-ranked man in the Australian Open final four since Patrick McEnroe made it at No. 114 in 1991.
Oh, how close Sandgren came to a monumental upset. After rolling through the second and third sets as Federer’s serves dropped from an average of 112 mph to 105 mph and his unforced errors totaled 30, Sandgren led 5-4 in the fourth set. With Federer serving, Sandgren had a trio of opportunities to end things and complete a career-defining victory. On the first, Sandgren dumped a backhand into the net. On the second, he pushed a forehand wide. On the third, another forehand found the net.
They went to a tiebreaker, which included the bizarre sight of a ball kid running into Sandgren’s right calf at the 3-all changeover. It didn’t seem to bother the player, though, because he grabbed the next three points to put himself a point from winning.
But Sandgren failed to close the deal at 6-3 … or at 6-4 … or at 6-5 … or at 7-6.
“Got to get lucky sometimes, I’ll tell you that,” Federer said. “Because in those seven match points, you’re not under control.”
On Federer’s second chance to take the fourth set and force a fifth, Sandgren hit a ball that landed near the baseline. Federer thought it might be out — he turned to look at a line judge for a call that never came — yet barely flicked it back in a defensive manner, and Sandgren’s overhead smash went long.
Federer wagged his right index finger overhead — the universal sign for “I’m No. 1!” — and was on the right path. He ended the victory with a service winner at 119 mph, a little more than an hour after he was staring down defeat.
Federer has won six of his major championships in Australia and has never lost to anyone ranked worse than 54th at the hard-court tournament. But Sandgren, whose career tour-level record is under .500, played superbly — he produced edges of 27-5 in aces and 73-44 in total winners — for all but the seven most crucial points.
He won every point he needed to — more than Federer, 161 to 160 — except the last.
Federer’s footwork was hardly perfect, and the lower-body push he normally gets to add oomph to forehands and serves was nonexistent.
Federer’s mood? That soured considerably when he was down 2-0 in the third set, but he held break points after Sandgren missed a backhand on a 28-stroke point that was the match’s longest.
Federer wasted the second break chance there by netting a backhand and yelled at himself in one of his various languages. A line judge nearby went over to chair umpire Marijana Veljovic to report what she’d heard.
Veljovic then announced a code violation for audible obscenity, drawing objections from Federer, who spoke to the line judge. When action resumed, Sandgren smacked a down-the-line backhand winner to erase break point No. 3 and let out a scream, then completed his second hold from a love-40 deficit.
That made it 3-0, and at the changeover, Federer continued to sarcastically harangue Veljovic about the line judge: “You think she’s 100% sure? She’s from Switzerland, right? … Give me a break.” Then he was visited by a trainer, and they left the court for treatment, creating a 10-minute break between games.
At the US Open in September, it was Federer’s upper back and neck that bothered him in a five-set quarterfinal loss to Grigor Dimitrov, who was ranked 78th at the time.
In this tournament, the No. 3-seeded Federer hasn’t played anyone ranked better than No. 41 Filip Krajinovic, whom he beat in the second round. Federer was pushed to the brink in the third round by No. 47 John Millman, who had him two points from defeat before Federer came back to claim a fifth-set tiebreaker. In the fourth round, Federer dropped the opening set to No. 67 Marton Fucsovics.
The last two men’s quarterfinals are Wednesday: No. 1 Rafael Nadal vs. No. 5 Dominic Thiem and No. 7 Alexander Zverev vs. No. 15 Stan Wawrinka. Nadal is seeking a 20th Grand Slam title to match Federer’s men’s record.
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