Millman v Federer has all the elements of a Rocky movie

If there’s some Rocky Balboa in John Millman then Roger Federer steps into Apollo Creed’s shoes perfectly — too quick, too pretty, too everything.

John Millman feels the love from fans at Melbourne Arena but it will be in the more corporate setting of Rod Laver Arena that he battles Roger Federer.

John Millman was making a decent run at a Brisbane International when the crowds he attracted still only amounted to a hunchbacked old bloke in a trench coat and three limping dogs. A wisecracking colleague scanned the barren scene and proclaimed, “Millmania!”

Now here we are: Friday night in the big city, Australian Open, Rod Laver Arena, Millman, Millmania, his own mania, Roger Federer. There’s some Rocky Balboa in all this, and him, in his heart the size of Melbourne Park, in the gut-busting effort, eating lightning, crapping thunder, in the hardcore fight that means if he is still standing, he will still be throwing punches. Part of him cannot believe he is here, part of him has never doubted it. Federer’s complimentary description: “Tough as nails.”

There’s some Apollo Creed in Federer, of course, too pretty for most, too quick, too good looking, too flash, too rich, too successful, too popular, too everything for a bum like Millman, but Federer has gone down for the count to him at the 2018 US Open, when oppressive heat and a crazed opponent have made Federer simply wish for it to be over. Millman has sweated so much in New York City that his shoes have squeaked and his shirts have gone see-through. Make no mistake that Federer will be on high alert for their first meeting at a major since then. For their rematch. For Rocky II.

John Millman has captured the local crowd’s hopes

The grizzled old Australian Davis Cup captain, Lleyton Hewitt, should tell Millman what Rocky’s grizzled old trainer, Mickey, has told him before his second fight against Apollo Creed: “This guy just don’t want to win, you know. He wants to bury you. He wants to humiliate you. He wants to prove to the whole world that you was nothing but some kind of a ... a freak the first time out.”

Millman is an excitable, hyperactive, battling sort of bloke who probably pumps his fist when his number comes up at the bistro. He will milk the crowd. Magnificently. Feed off it.

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Ravenously. He will display all his emotions. Wonderfully. He will interact. He is an open book, tapping his head and pointing straight down the court, telling himself to concentrate on it. He will hit and run until the umpire calls the final score and tells him to stop.

The problem for Millman, his mania and the general Millmania? One of Federer’s favourite pastimes is to towel up players at their own slams. Beating Australians in Melbourne, beating Brits in London, beating the French in Paris — makes him giggle.

Roger Federer is the king and John Millman wants his crown. Picture: Michael Klein

He revels in the atmosphere and the packed stadium and the showtime slot and the hype around the homegrown player, and then he delights in killing him off, earning the final ovation as everyone shakes their head and says oh, Roger!

Millman on beating Federer in Rocky I: “I’ve had to talk a lot more about him than I ever thought I would. Obviously Roger is a class act. The way I see it is, you take a few snapshots, you have a few of those memorable moments that hopefully when you finish playing tennis you can think, that was pretty cool.

“That was one of those moments. That was one of those really special nights at Arthur Ashe. Packed crowd there, I played some really, really great tennis. He probably didn’t play his best tennis. I managed to do something that not many people thought I could do. It was an awesome experience. But I do know that that doesn’t really count for anything now.

“The good news is I’ll go out there and you start out at 0-0. What you can expect from me, my coaching team, friends, family, what they can all expect from me is that I’ll go out there and give it a crack. Regardless of the score at the end of the day, I’ll go out there and leave it all out there. If lightning strikes twice, I wouldn’t say no to it. It’s what you want to do. Home slam against Roger, it’s pretty cool. There’s no doubt I’m the underdog.”

THE MASTER v THE AUSSIE UPSTART

Millman on his tongue-in-cheek tip for Open boss Craig Tiley to schedule Rocky II for Melbourne Arena, out where day passes let anyone in and the atmosphere is more like a Hunters and Collectors concert: “I don’t think Craig will take me too seriously. More so just to throw a spanner in the works for Roger. I don’t know if he knows the other courts. He hits on the outside ones, but he hasn’t played on too many. I don’t know if he would have played too many matches on the outside ones.

“Look, I love a vocal crowd. Obviously the matches I played, probably two really special courts, Show Court 3 and Melbourne Arena, are notorious for the crowd support you get there, the vocal Aussies. I very much consider myself, and I think the people who know me, know that I’m just your typical Aussie bloke. So I’m one of the people. The people get the ground passes and the people go to those courts. I know it’s a little corporate at Rod Laver — but it’s still a pretty cool court to play on.”

Switzerland’s Roger Federer, left, and Australia’s John Millman at the 2018 US Open

Federer on his loss to Millman in Rocky I being the most physically draining match of his life: “Yeah, definitely. I don’t know anything remotely close. I was just happy it was over. I never had that. I’d normally rather go back in time, If I could play that match again — but I don’t have that feeling about that match. I was just happy the US Open was over and I could focus on other things, recover, all that.

“It was a combination of many things that went wrong for me on that day, plus the opponent was ready and tough as nails. In some ways I tried to prepare as good as I could for the US Open there. I tried everything in the match itself. It was just not meant to be on that day I had no regrets. I hit the wall. I tried to figure it out as long as I could. I still had my chances, so it was a tough loss.”