Australian Open 2018: Roger Federer loses his cool with chair umpire during quarter-final match; watch video
What's the story?
It is seldom that you would find Roger Federer losing his cool on the tennis court since the Swiss is generally pretty reserved with his expressions on court. For once however, the crowd at Melbourne Park bore witness to a furious Federer letting the chair umpire know exactly how he felt during his quarter-final match against Tomas Berdych.
During the first set, Roger looked visibly flustered following Berdych's quick 3-0 lead and though the Swiss star did battle back, it wasn't without incident. It was, however, the former world no.1's grit and determination under pressure, that pushed him towards a fairly comfortable straight sets victory in the end.
In case you didn't know...
Roger Federer has not dropped a single set en route to the semi-finals at the Australian Open where the 36-year-old has won a total of five times.
The heart of the matter
In a frustrating first half an hour for Roger things weren't quite going his way. On one particular Berdych serve, Federer challenged the line-judge's decision of the ball being in. However, after he lost the challenge "Fedex" decided to go after the umpire.
“Are you comfortable with this? It's your call,” he appeared to be saying to the chair umpire repeatedly. Visibly unhappy, the crowd followed with jeers and whistles as the world no. 2 attempted to get his act back together.
He eventually did just that and ended up winning the set 7-6 thanks to a tiebreaker.
What's next?
Roger will face the South Korean unseeded player Hyeon Chung in the semi-finals next at the Aussie Open.
Author's take
It may have looked like a straightforward win for Federer but at times the Czech got the better of his opponent, and that led to an uncharacteristic response such as this from the maestro. Having said that, Roger looks on course for a sixth title at the Australian Open.