“You do take the faster matches whenever you can because there’s enough wear and tear on the body,” Federer said. “There’s enough tough matches throughout the season.”

The surface in Rod Laver Arena, though apparently not quite as quick as in 2017, suits Federer’s attacking game beautifully. In his last 40 outdoor hardcourt matches, he is 37-3.

There are always big numbers in the mix when it comes to Federer at this stage, but he can surely see the allure of trying to win his 20th Grand Slam singles title. A year ago, when he arrived at the Australian Open after a six-month injury break, he had 17 and had not won a major title since Wimbledon in 2012.

“It’s a number that I honestly didn’t think I’d get to or be close to,” Federer said of No. 20. “Last year before this tournament I would have been happy to say that I’d win one more Slam before the end of my career. I’d been trying for four or five years to win one more, and I would have said, ‘One more? Great!’”

After winning last year’s Australian Open and Wimbledon, he is here at 19, just one win from becoming the oldest man to claim a major singles title in the Open era since Ken Rosewall won the Australian Open at 37 in 1972. (That would not quite be an apples-to-apples comparison because of the comparative weakness of that 1972 field, which was missing many leading players, including Stan Smith, Arthur Ashe and Ilie Nastase.)

But several coaches in Melbourne do see a pathway for the sixth-seeded Cilic to spring an ambush, just as he did in the 2014 United States Open semifinals on his way to his only major title. He also nearly did it in the 2016 Wimbledon quarterfinals before Federer saved three match points and prevailed in five sets.