Roger Federer breezes past Berdych, sets clash with Nishikori

Another round of matches just ended in Melbourne earlier today with the first chunk of the 3rd round up on the table. In the last match of the session, Roger Federer (17 ATP) faced Tomas Berdych at the Rod Laver Arena in what should`ve been a pretty balanced match. But Berdych (10 ATP) seemed unable to resist to a brilliant Federer. The Swiss booked himself a spot in the 4th round and seems that he`s getting more and more momentum at the Australian Open 2017.

With Djokovic out of the contest, things might get quite intense in the following rounds.

Federer crushed Berdych but Nishikori is different material

When the main draw was out, most of those involved in Tennis saw this match coming. But Berdych was a bit under the weather today. The opening set was a blistering display with Federer producing all the good stuff. He broke twice on Berdych's serve eventually taking the set by 6-2. From that point on the river followed one certain direction with Federer in control. In the opening game of the 2nd set, Federer broke again Berdych and kept the leverage until the end of it winning by 6-4.

The 3rd act went on a similar path as the previous one with Berdych losing his service game right at the start. In the end, Federer closed the set by 6-4 after Berdych saved 2 match point. He is in the 4th round where Nishikori awaits. The Japanese star seems fit for a long run in Australia. He booked himself a spot in the 4th round at the end of a great display of power against Lukas Lacko (121 ATP) from Slovakia. Kei Nishikori (5 ATP) won in straight sets 6-4 6-4 6-4.

Overall, Federer and Nishikori met on 6 different occasions with Federer winning 4 of the matches. Last time they went on a duel was in London back in 2015 during the ATP World Tour Finals having Federer as the winner.

Federer's game is getting better

The main condition for a player to be successful is to play as many matches as possible in order to find the proper recipe. But Federer went off for about 6 months. A little bit of rust was quite obvious during the last 2 matches, but against Berdych, it was a vintage Federer having great shots, great angles, a decent amount of balance and the mindset adjusted for more.

And it`s fair to say that he`s going to need all those skills against Nishikori or Murray if he moves even deeper in the tournament.