Roger Federer: Fed-Ex Not Making It Easy for Himself at Australian Open

Heading into Roger Federer's third-round match at the Australian Open against Ivo Karlovic, the big question was how Federer was going to respond to his second-round walkover.

Maybe the extra rest would prove useful and would lead him to a swift, dominant victory.

Or maybe it would make him rusty, forcing him to fight tooth and nail to advance to the fourth round.

As it turned out, Federer did indeed seem to be a little rusty.

That's the best explanation for performance against Karlovic. Sure, Federer won, and there's only so much you can complain about seeing as how he won in straight sets 7-6 (8-6), 7-5, 6-3. But he didn't really put the match in his back pocket until the third set, when the match was already a lost cause for Karlovic. Federer was able to put it away with ease.

The first two sets were a different story. Federer was unable to break Karlovic in the first set, and the two of them had to go to a tiebreak despite the fact Karlovic gave Federer more than a couple opportunities to take control of the set.

And then Federer got lucky in the tiebreak. Karlovic had a chance to put him away, as Federer set him up for a kill shot with a soft little lob at the net that was seemed custom-designed for an overhead smash.

But Karlovic seemed to freeze, and he just could get high enough to send the ball back where it came from. It dropped safely behind him to give Federer the point.

Federer then won the tiebreak to put the first set in his pocket.

The second set went back and forth, too, only this time Federer was able to get the break he had been desperately seeking all match. He was up two sets to none after that, and the match was pretty much over. The third set was a mere formality.

Let's get one thing straight right here and now. Federer didn't play a bad match against Karlovic. After all, he won in straight sets, and he did what he had to. He did benefit from a bit of good luck, but that's nothing out of the ordinary for him, or any other tennis player.

However, Federer did look human. He made some bad shots, made some bad reads, and he had a very hard time getting used to Karlovic's serve. Federer certainly wasn't overmatched, but Karlovic gave him a run for his money.

Then again, looking human is another thing that's not out of the ordinary, as Federer has been looking human for two years now.

But for now, so far, so good. Federer endured a minor test at the hands of Alexander Kudryavtsev in the first round, and a slightly more difficult test at the hands of Karlovic in the third, but he's still standing.

What we're going to find out going forward is if Federer can ramp up his game as the competition gets stiffer. He's going to have to cut down on the bad shots, the bad reads, and he's going to need to convert some more break points.

In theory, this is easy enough. In practice...well, we'll see.