Federer’s classy response to shock Millman loss

Unseeded John Millman produced the performance of his career to end Roger Federer’s interest in the 2018 US Open with a stunning 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (3) victory in the small hours at Flushing Meadows.

The opponent for the No. 6 seed could be the second-seeded Federer, who was to play Australian John Millman in a night match Monday.

“Last time I played him I got three games at Queens”, Millman said.

Federer had cruised through the first set against Millman who was appearing in his maiden last-16 at the majors.

“That was disappointing. I was just happy that the match was over”.

Millman will take on 13-time Grand Slam victor Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals after the 6th seeded Serbian sailed past Joao Sousa of Portugal 6-3, 6-4, 6-3.

Federer says he understands being regularly asked about retirement, having faced with this line of questioning for “like nine years”. “It’s one of the first times it’s happened to me”, Federer said after the match.

“I am not 21 anymore, that was 10 years ago”. I’m just glad, you know, I took the chance today’.

“Yeah, it’s uncomfortable. Clearly just keep on sweating more and more and more and more as the match goes on”.

Roger Federer of Switzerland waves goodbye to the audience after the men’s singles fourth round match against John Millman of Australia at the 2018 US Open in NY, the United States, Sept. 3, 2018. “When you attack there in the wrong way, he will punish you every time for it”, said the Swiss. I know that. I’m very aware he didn’t have a great day in the office.

Sharapova, the 2006 champion, had never lost a night session match in NY prior to her first Grand Slam meeting with Suarez Navarro.

Millman fought back from being down a break early in the fourth set to force a tiebreak. His double-fault count was his second-most at the US Open and was tied for third-most at Grand Slams. Djokovic, the No. 6 seed, takes on 68th-ranked Joao Sousa.

“But I got out of a tough second set, really found my feet and started to be a little bit more aggressive”.

“It’s probably taken me a lot longer to crack it at this level”, Millman said.

I’ve never played anyone’s reputation.

He skipped the entire clay-court season for the second successive year, returning to play two grass-court tournaments before losing to Kevin Anderson in the Wimbledon quarter-finals.

Nishikori defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3 6-2 7-5 while Cilic was a 7-6 (8/6) 6-2 6-4 victor against David Goffin.

The other quarterfinal on the bottom half of the draw will be 2014 runner-up Kei Nishikori against 2014 champion Marin Cilic or No. 10 David Goffin. When he held serve to go up 3-2 in the third set, fans started a round-the-stadium chant of, “Aussie Aussie Aussie”. We’ve seen Serena Williams get tighter as she’s aged and Federer too – when he was 33 he lost a dozen matches because of his failure to convert break points.