Roger Federer needed some time to get going in the Australian Open's fourth round, a match after a draining and difficult escape in which he was two points from defeat.
To be precise, he required a full set to get sorted.
After seeming sluggish while dropping the opener, Federer quickly righted himself and pushed through the next three sets without a hitch, reaching the 57th Grand Slam quarter-final of his career by coming back to beat Marton Fucsovics 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 on Sunday.
When he takes on Tennys Sandgren of the United States on Tuesday, it’ll be the 38-year-old Federer’s record 15th quarter-final at the Australian Open.
He has won the title at Melbourne Park six times, part of his men's-record 20 Major championships.
The other quarter-final on that side of the bracket is defending champion Novak Djokovic against No 32 Milos Raonic of Canada.
Federer's slow start against Fucsovics might have been a result of all of the energy he expended while getting past John Millman in a fifth-set super tiebreaker on Friday. Millman was two points from victory at 8-4, before Federer reeled off the last six consecutive points.
Things never got quite so dire against Fucsovics, a 27-year-old from Hungary who is ranked 67th and was seeking his first Major quarter-final appearance.
After failing to accumulate a single break point in the first set, Federer won seven of Fucsovics’ service games the rest of the way.
He ended up with a 44-15 edge in winners on an evening with the temperature in the mid-60s Fahrenheit (below 20 Celsius).
Federer has yet to face a seeded player in the tournament and that won't change against Sandgren, who is ranked 100th but eliminated No 12 Fabio Fognini in four sets.
The lowest-ranked player that has ever defeated Federer in his 21 Australian Open appearances was No 54 Arnaud Clement in 2000.
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