Roger Federer
Tennis - Australian Open - Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, Australia, January 18, 2018. Switzerland's Roger Federer celebrates winning his match against Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff. Reuters / Thomas Peter

World No. 2 Roger Federer will face French veteran Richard Gasquet on Saturday in the third round of the 2018 Australian Open at Rod Laver Arena. Federer owns a 16-2 career head-to-head record against Gasquet, with the most recent victory coming at the quarter-final of the Shanghai Masters in Oct. 2017.

Gasquet, seeded 29th, is coming off two comfortable straight set victories against Slovenia's Blaz Kavcic and Italy's Lorenzo Sonego in the first two rounds. He hasn't defeated Federer since the fourth round of the 2008 Rome Masters. Federer enters Saturday's game as the overwhelming favourite. In fact, the reigning winner at Melbourne Park is also the odds-on favourite to repeat as Australian Open champion next Sunday.

"I know the big player he (Federer) is. I will try to play a great match, I hope to play in the day rather than night. I will be ready. I beat him twice. You never know what can happen,” Gasquet told French paper L’Equipe on the eve of the match.

Federer made some news Friday when he supported the under-fire Australian Open organisers over the brutal heat wave in Melbourne. Six-time champion Novak Djokovic said the organisers' big-business approach was pushing players to the limit. On Thursday, Djokovic said he "struggled to draw a breath" during his 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 victory over Frenchman Gael Monfils. During the second-round match that lasted two hours and 45 minutes, the temperature in Melbourne soared to 39C and left both players gasping for air.

"You do know when you come to Australia the heat can sometimes be problematic but everyone faces similar issues," Federer said after his round-two night match when the temperature was still about 30 degrees. "Sure I was watching the other players suffer but as long as nothing bad happens it's all good," he added.

World No. 1 Rafael Nadal joined Djokovic in his criticism of the tournament organisers. The 2018 Australian Open live streaming, Roger Federer vs Richard Gasquet live streaming, Roger Federer live streaming and tennis live streaming info follows.

Roger Federer vs Richard Gasquet live stream: Watch Tennis online
Third Round
Start time: 8:15 p.m. Thursday (Local Time, AEDT), 4:15 a.m. (ET), 9:15 a.m. (GMT)
On TV: Channel 7 (Australia), ESPN 2 (USA), Eurosport, BBC (UK)
2018 Australian Open live stream:
7Pus (Australia), WatchESPN (USA), Watch Eurosport (UK)

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