Record breaking Swiss maestro Roger Federer has bumped young Australian James Duckworth out of the 2014 Australian Open in straight sets as temperatures soared to over 40 degrees in the afternoon session at Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday.
Federer was at his calculated best, dispensing of the local son in straight sets 6-4 6-4 6-2 in an efficient hour and 46 minutes.
It was time enough for Federer to entertain an adoring centre court crowd, but not enough for the heat to have a negative effect on his tournament.
For Duckworth, a fresh faced 21-year-old from Sydney who made it through to the second round last year, it was a thrill to come face to face with one of the all-time greats of tennis and snare 10 games in a competitive performance.
It was always going to be a tough ask, but Duckworth managed to impress the man on the other side of the net, albeit for a short amount of time.
“Especially in the beginning, he hung tough for the first set and a half until I got the break in the second set,” Federer said.
Federer was business like in the first round and there would be no banana peel game here.
The win set a new Grand Slam record of 57 consecutive opening round wins – surpassing the mark he set with retired South African Wayne Ferreira.
In typical fashion, Federer tried his best to play down the record.
“I said it beforehand, this record is only really [relevant] since maybe 20 years because not everybody used to go to all the majors,” he said. “I think it’s only a thing players do since maybe 20 years ago to go to all the Slams. By virtue of that, Slams have gotten more important over the year. Clearly that’s a record in a way I guess I’m proud of in some ways because there’s no shortcuts in Grand Slams because of the best-of-five-set situation.”
Federer will face Slovenian Blaz Kavcic in the second round.
Kavcic advanced after Czech Republic veteran Radek Stepanek retired in the fourth set of their contest.
In other Australian results, Lleyton Hewitt lost a four hour marathon to 24th seeded Italian Andreas Seppi.
Like he has done on so many occasions, Hewitt fought back from two sets down to force a five and deciding set, but Seppi dug deep to prevail 7-6 6-3 5-7 5-7 7-5.
Marinko Matosevic suffered the unwanted ‘dirty dozen’, losing in the first round of a Grand Slam for a 12th consecutive time.
Matosevic exchanged sets with Japan’s Kei Nishikori over the opening four sets, but Nishikori cruised through the fifth to win 6-3 5-7 6-2 4-6 6-2.
Talented teen Nick Kyrgios advanced to the second round with a 6-3 6-7 6-2 7-6 triumph over German Benjamin Becker.
Despite a second set blip where he was held to love, Thanasi Kokkinakis cruised past the Netherlands’ Igor Sijsling 7-6 0-6 7-6 6-2.
Kokkinakis’ only previous Open experience was in the doubles last year, but he did feature in the boys singles final, losing to Kyrgios.
Bernard Tomic was in action against Rafael Nadal in the night session.
On a quiet day for the Australian women, Melburnian Olivia Rogowska had a resounding 6-3 6-3 win over Colombian Mariana Duque-Marino.
It was the second time that Rogowska has reached the second round of her home Slam.
But Storm Sanders could not seal the deal against Italian Camila Giorgi, losing 4-6 6-1 6-4 to the top-100 player.
