Roger Federer will look to book his place in the Australian Open second week when he takes on Xavier Malisse tonight.
Federer and Malisse have been well acquainted with each other since their junior days and it was actually Malisse who initially shone more at Grand Slam level, reaching the 2002 Wimbledon semi-finals. Since then, while Federer has broken almost every record of note in the game, Malisse has been afflicted by injury after injury.
However the Belgian remains one of the most talented ball strikers on tour and his ability to pull off the near impossible makes him a firm crowd pleaser. He has enjoyed a great start to the year, making the Chennai final and enjoying two straight sets wins so far.
However Federer will have been a little shaken by his epic against Gilles Simon on Wednesday, forced to pull out his best tennis far earlier in the tournament than he would have expected. That will simply have made him all the sharper to take on Malisse.
Federer has won seven of their eight career matches and has not lost to the Belgian on hard courts. He will be looking to conserve energy ahead of the second week to expect the Swiss to cruise through this one in straight sets.
