Roger Federer and Jan-Lennard Struff meet in the second round of the 2018 Australian Open.
Roger Federer is coming off a straight sets win over Aljaz Bedene that took 28 games to decide. In the victory, Federer won 78 percent of his first serve points and 61 percent of his second serve points. Federer hit 41 winners in his victory and was hitting the ball with great pace, as he looks to be in great shape for the 2018 season. Federer has now won 34 of his last 37 matches overall and continues to show that age is nothing but a number, as he’ll be 37 years old later this summer. During his current form, Federer has to be the favorite to win back to back Australian Open titles. Federer hasn’t lost before the third round of a grand slam since the 2013 Wimbledon. Federer has won 10 of his last 11 matches on hard court.
Jan-Lennard Struff is coming off a straight sets win over Kwon Soon-woo that took 25 games to decide. In the victory, Struff won 87 percent of his first serve points and 58 percent of his second serve points. Struff cruised in his opening round victory, dropping just five first set points and hitting 45 winners in a little over an hour. That shotmaking ability will be key here if Struff hopes to pull off an upset. Struff is now in the second round of a grand slam for the first time since the 2014 US Open. Struff hopes to make the third round of a grand slam for the first time in his career. Struff has split his last eight matches on hard court.
These two have played once, which was in the 2016 Halle Open, a match Federer won in straight sets. The match took 23 games to decide. This will obviously be their first meeting on hard court.
Struff looked good in his opening match and clearly has some shotmaking ability that’s needed to counter somebody like Federer. But let’s be serious here, Federer continues to play the best tennis of anyone in the field and has been a machine in grand slam play. There’s not betting against Federer until he provides a reason not to bet against him.