Four-time Melbourne champion produces top-shelf tennis in runaway win over David Goffin.

It was a match-up more David and Goliath than David and Roger. Goffin faced deficits in every quantifiable area, from physical size and power to career earnings, accolades and experience.

Clinical, swift, ruthless, overwhelming … all of these words aptly described Federer’s approach to the match and execution of his tactics. He completely suffocated the Belgian, standing up on the baseline and cracking the ball definitively and early to keep long rallies at bay. It was a tactic that begat 15 forehand winners alone among 39 in total, compared with Goffin’s total tally of 17. When he wasn’t swatting winners from the baseline, Federer was charging the net, advancing 22 times with an excellent success rate of almost 90 per cent.

Goffin admitted that he struggled to adapt to the conditions at Rod Laver Arena, his first appearance on one of the world’s biggest tennis stages. By the time he did, in the third set, it was simply far too late.

Federer broke serve immediately in the third set and opened a 2-0 lead – the match was still yet to tick over the one hour mark. Goffin got on the board in the third game and at least pushed the third seed thanks to more steady, aggressive play. But with the break in hand, Federer never relinquished more than two points in any of his subsequent service games, and confidently served out the match to 15 to complete the rout.
 source: www.ausopen.com