After winning his first two matches of the Australian Open conceding just three games in each, cruise control for world number one Roger Federer came to a grinding halt, barely scraping through to the fourth round on Saturday.

In a match which began with significant inconsistencies by the three-time Australian Open winner, the future for Federer in the tournament looked bleak, facing a set defecit on two separate occasions in his third round match against unseeded Serbian Janko Tipsarevic.

The third round encounter took just under four and a half hours, with tie breakers to decide the first two sets, along with a final set which consisted of eighteen games.

Although Federer had seventeen more unforced errors than his opponent as well as a lower break point percentage conversion rate, a total of 96 winners helped the number one seed to the closest victory so far in the men’s draw this Australian Open.

Roger Federer (1) def Janko Tipsarevic: 6-7(5) 7-6(1) 5-7 6-1 10-8

Federer will now play the winner of the match currently on court at time of publishing between Juan Monaco of Argentina and Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic.

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Tags: Australian Open, Tennis