After overcoming a determined Australian underdog in the Brisbane International on Thursday, Roger Federer will have to repeat the dose in Friday’s quarter-finals.

The 17-time grand slam champion will return to Pat Rafter Arena less than 24 hours after his 4-6 6-4 6-3 second-round victory over wildcard John Millman to take on James Duckworth for a place in the semi-finals.

The match will be Duckworth’s first quarter-final in an ATP Tour event and is a repeat of his clash with Federer at last year’s Australian Open.

Having battled back from a set down to defeat Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen on Thursday, Duckworth was relishing the prospect of facing the Swiss great.

“Obviously he’s a great player, one of the best in history,” Duckworth said.

“It was a bit of a sort of a tough time for me (last year).

“I was struggling with a bit of an elbow injury then.”

Duckworth will be one of three Australians in action on Friday with big-hitting Sam Groth set for a shootout with Canadian fifth seed Milos Raonic and Bernard Tomic taking on world No.5 and second seed Kei Nishikori.

The other quarter-final will be between rising Bulgarian star and fourth seed Grigor Dimitrov and surprise packet Martin Klizan from Slovakia.

Friday will also feature the women’s semi-finals with Serbian second seed Ana Ivanovic taking Kazakh-American Varvara Lepchenko in the afternoon before world No.2 Maria Sharapova takes on Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina in the evening match.