Roger Federer revealed he was unaware how many match points he had saved after staging his second miraculous comeback of the Australian Open to reach the semi-finals.
The third seed had come back from 4-8 in a deciding tie-break to beat John Millman in round three, but that was put into the shade by his efforts against Tennys Sandgren.
The 100th-ranked American had seven match points in the fourth set of the biggest match of his life but Federer saved all of them and went on to win 6-3 2-6 2-6 7-6 (8) 6-3.
Federer struggled with a groin injury, taking an off-court medical timeout at 0-3 in the third set, and had difficulty moving to his forehand until the end of the tie-break.
By then he had saved three match points at 4-5 and four more in the tie-break, including three in a row from 3-6.
Federer said later: āHonestly, when they told me seven, I was like, āWhat?ā I thought it was three. Itās such a blur at some point.
āI remember there were a few longer rallies on match points. I just said, āIf he can belt a backhand down the line, or run around and go huge, heās willing to take a chanceā, because you just donāt know if youāre going to get another opportunity for a match point like this.
āYouāve got to be a little bit careful. He did that. I thought it was the right play in that very moment by him. Thatās why I feel a bit bad in a way because I didnāt feel like he did anything really wrong. Itās just luck at some point.
āIāve been on the other side as well. These ones just sting and they hurt. If you could obviously play them again, would you play them differently? But I could have blinked at the wrong time and shanked. That would have been it. I was incredibly lucky today.ā
Sandgren, who also reached the last eight here two years ago, cut an understandably disconsolate figure in his press conference as he reflected on what might have been.
āObviously he played them well,ā the American said of the match points. āI could have played them better. Iāve run through them a bunch of times.
āWhen you survive that many times, you canāt give a good player, let alone maybe the best player ever, that many chances to come back. Theyāre going to find their game and start playing well.ā
After his struggles against Millman and Marton Fucsovics, where he also dropped the first set, Federer looked to have picked things up in the early stages.
But by the start of the second he was missing wildly with his forehand and it gradually became clear all was not well physically.
Federer was unhappy to be given a warning for swearing after being overheard by a line judge as his frustration about the tightness in his leg spilled over.
āI started to feel like my defence wasnāt really there,ā he said. āThatās also when I got the warning finally because I was upset about the pain I was feeling.
āSometimes you can solve things with a medical timeout, but that was not really the case. Of course, already that third set was halfway gone anyhow, so it was just a matter of coming to terms with what do I have, what donāt I have in my game.
āI figured in the fourth set things could go quickly or maybe Iāll hang around for a bit, eventually heāll get the break, because he was playing very well.ā
Federer, who has never retired from a professional match, admitted he thought victory was probably beyond him, saying: āFor the most time there I thought that was it.
āOf course, thereās little sparkles where maybe not, then youāre like, āNo, it is overā. Only maybe when I won that fourth set did I really think that maybe this whole thing could turn around.ā
For most of the fourth set it seemed inconceivable that Federer could find a way through but he somehow hung on and will hope the improved form he showed in the decider can be a good omen for the semi-finals.
He is optimistic he can recover in time and is not writing off his chances of a 21st grand slam title just yet.
He said: āYou have an extra day, adrenaline, thereās a lot of things. Two good nights of sleep, doctors, physios.
āHopefully weāll find out that itās actually nothing bad, that it was just the groin that went really tight from playing a lot, from nerves, I donāt know.
āIf I can get through a match like this, through a match like Millman, you do believe. I only believe it once itās over, I shake the hand of the opponent.ā
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.Ā
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience forĀ our loyalĀ readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.Ā
That is invaluable.Ā
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalistās job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readersā comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readersā comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the āreport this postā link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here