The Swiss top seed claimed the win with a 7-6, 6-3 win over the Australian, but it was not as straightforward by any means.
The recently turned 30-year old from Australia used mainly his solid serve and heavy ground-strokes to keep the 20-time Grand Slam champions moving around to all parts of the court. At no point really did either player look liked they were in any real danger of losing their serve, as on only a few occasions did the score ever reach 40-40.
So the players headed for a tie-break.
Just as at the beginning of the clash, Millman served, however, unlike in the first set, the tie-break was a vastly different ball game all together. Federer picked up his game immensely, and after Millman won the first point of the breaker, he went onto the win six straight points to claim the opening set.
Particularly telling, was the FedExpress use of the lines, as he seemed to purposefully hit his forehand closer to the edge of the court and used it as a way to get to the net as well.
The set ended with the Brisbane born player hitting a forehand long.
In the second and what turned out to be the decisive set, Federer opened on his serve and each player, each held their serve until the sixth game. With the nine-time Halle Open champion leading 3-2, he broke Millman’s serve, when he hit a forehand long, after what may have been an unfortunate bounce.
In the next game on Federer’s serve, the number 56 ranked player on the ATP Tour, managed to get a foot-hole in the Federer serve, winning the first two points to get a 30-0 score. However, as is customary with Federer, he stormed back to win the next four points to win the game.
Millman held on to his next service game and despite having had a chance at a break-point down 3-5, Federer held on to his serve, won the set and the match, after his opponent hit his serve wide.
Federer will now face Joe-Wilfred Tsonga in the next round on Thursday, after the Frenchman ousted fellow country-man Benoit Paire 6-4, 7-5.