London: Roger Federer needed just 16 minutes to win the opening set in a 6-0, 7-5, 6-4 defeat of France’s Adrian Mannarino to reach his 16th Wimbledon quarterfinals, Monday. He remained on course for a final clash with World No. 1 Rafa Nadal, who in a late evening match beat Jiri Veseley 6-3, 6-3, 6-4
Top seed Federer, 36, has now won 32 consecutive sets at Wimbledon, just two behind his record set from the third round in 2005 to his title triumph in 2006.
“It was crucial for him (Mannarino) to stay in the match at the beginning of the second set and then it got tougher,” said Federer after his sixth win in six meetings against Frenchman. “You always tend to play better against better players and I am happy to be back in the second week of Wimbledon.”
In other men’s singles matches Milos Raonic of Canada defeated Mckenzie McDonald of the US 6-3, 6-4, 6-7(5-7), 6-2 while Kei Nishikori had to work hard to subdue Ernst Gulbis 4-6, 7-6(7-5), 7-6(12-10), 6-1.
In women’s singles, Serena Williams also sealed a last 16 berth with a fluent 6-2, 6-2 win over Evginya Rodina of Russia. She broke her opponent twice in each set and committed only 14 unforced errors during the entire match, an ominous sign for her future rivals.
In other matches, German 11th seed Angelique Kerber became the highest-ranked player to reach the women’s quarterfinals after she outclassed Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic 6-3, 7-6(7-5).
Over the last week, Kerber has watched all the top 10 seeds perish, which has raised expectations that she could repeat her 2016 run to the final.
Meanwhile Kiki Bertens ensured a record exodus of seeds at Wimbledon when she added Czech Karolina Pliskova to the list of big names to perish before the quarterfinals.
The Dutchwoman’s 6-3, 7-6(7-1) win means that for the first time since seedings were introduced at Wimbledon in 1927 none of the top eight in the women’s draw made the quarterfinals.
Bertens, the first Dutchwoman to reach the last 16 since Michaella Krajicek, sister of former men’s champion Richard, did so in 2007, followed up her win over Venus Williams in the third round with a display of power and poise.
A first for Divij
London: India’s Divij Sharan reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinals career as he combined with Artem Sitak to stage yet another dramatic comeback after being by down by two sets to defeat Jonathan Erlich and Marcin Matkowski at the Wimbledon Championships, here Monday. Sharan and New Zealand’s Sitak prevailed 1-6, 6-7(3-7), 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 over the Isralei-Polish combination in a grueling men’s doubles third round match which lasted 230 minutes.
