January 24, 2020 Melbourne, AUS

The third round match up between 20-time Grand Slam winner and Aussie, John Millman, proved to be as good as anyone could expect! Having lost to Millman in a Grand Slam previously, Roger took the court knowing he was facing a dangerous opponent. 

While his first two matches were near-flawless, Millman pushed the Swiss Star and errors were coming a bit more frequently. Roger was able to weather the storm and capture the win once the match was pushed to a deciding 10-point tiebreaker in the final 5th set. Roger found himself down 4-8 in the breaker but played smart tennis and dug in avoiding any mistakes. He won six points in a row to take the win 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (8) after four hours of play.

Roger had 62 winners, 16 aces but also 82 unforced errors. 

“Oh God, it was tough," he said during his post-match interview. "Thank God it was a Match Tie-break, otherwise I would have lost this one. Where to start? I think John played a great match… He is a great fighter, a good guy and it came down to the wire at the end. A bit of luck maybe goes one way. I had to stay so focused, take the right decision. He was doing all that stuff at the beginning of the Match Tie-break, coming up with the goods and I thought, ‘Okay, I guess I tried.’ I didn’t play too bad after all and I was getting ready to explain myself in the press conference… What a match and John deserves over half of this one.”