Swiss tennis star Roger Federer won his 997th match on the ATP Tour on Thursday, but not before surviving an almighty scare from Australian wildcard John Millman at the Brisbane International. Playing his first match of the year after receiving a first round bye, world number two Federer had to come from a set and a break down to overhaul Millman 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in just over two hours.
Federer was out of sorts throughout the match against a player ranked 151 places below him, making 38 unforced errors - most of them in the opening set-and-a-half. Millman, on the other hand, played some brilliant tennis, spurred on by the emotion of playing in front of family and friends on his home court. Two years ago he took a set off Britain's Andy Murray at the Brisbane International before fading away.
Millman was out of the game for 12 months from May 2013 with a shoulder injury and has only played lower level Challenger tournaments since then. He has won just three matches on the main ATP Tour in his career, two of those in Brisbane, and has US $261,000 in prize money, compared with Federer's $88.6 million. But for much of the match there appeared little difference between the two as Millman lifted and Federer struggled to find his touch. Millman, 25, stunned the capacity crowd at Pat Rafter Arena when he broke Federer to take the first set, then broke again to lead 3-1 in the second.
But Federer noticeably lifted a level, breaking straight back before breaking Millman's next serve to force a decider. The Swiss maestro took advantage of his tiring opponent to ease away with the third set in 37 minutes. "I was under a lot of pressure - I think I got quite lucky in the second set," Federer said. "He was playing great tennis until the last couple of games. "It's the start of the season - I never know what to expect. I was just happy to win." Federer now plays another Australian wildcard, James Duckworth, in the quarter-finals following his 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 win over Finland's Jarkko Nieminen.