Roger Federer: 'My opponent needs to deliver good performance to beat me'

Roger Federer was aware that Denis Istomin is not the best possible player to start a Grand Slam campaign against. In a press conference at the Australian Open, Federer - who faced the world No. 99 on Monday night session - said that the good feelings he has so far this year need to still be confirmed in Melbourne.

'I don't want to overanalyze how I played in the off-season, how I played at the Hopman Cup', said Federer. 'That's exactly how then I might not recover if I have a bad start in the match tomorrow, let's say. So I think the focus really is on those early rounds, especially tomorrow has to be. I know what Denis did to Novak. I watched basically the entire game a couple years ago when he beat Novak here. I've had some tough ones against him in the past. He can play well in fast courts, and that's what it's going to be a little bit here as well. Look, I'm playing good tennis. I'm confident that I think it needs a good performance by my opponent probably to beat me. That's always a good thought. But then again, I think I'm playing well. Depending on how you match up with your opponent, who is going to win the big points, the margins are so slim nowadays that I'm just not thinking too far ahead. I don't think I should because I think that would be a mistake. I hope I can put myself in contention as the tournament goes deeper, but we'll see.'

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from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2Hcwx4K