Federer reaches quarterfinals at Wimbledon
WIMBLEDON, England — Centre Court fans applauded Roger Federer's latest win at Wimbledon. And they really roared for the roof.
Five-time champion Federer advanced to the quarterfinals on a day Wimbledon went indoors. Some 90 minutes after Federer was done Monday, rain halted play with Amelie Mauresmo leading top-ranked Dinara Safina, 6-4, 1-4, and officials ordered the new retractable roof closed for the remainder of the match. Safina rallied to win, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Federer hit 23 aces, never lost serve and beat familiar foil Robin Soderling 6-4, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5). Federer improved to 11-0 against Soderling, including a victory in the French Open final three weeks ago to complete a career Grand Slam.
This time the No. 2-seeded Federer came through on a handful of key points. He earned the only service break of the match in the ninth game of the opening set, when Soderling committed five unforced errors to fall behind for good, 5-4.
Soderling led in the final tiebreaker but double-faulted on the next-to-last point, then hit an errant return.
"Today was hard to get through a really dangerous match," Federer said. "Not many rallies, so maybe not as much fun for the people. But I stayed calm, waited for my chance."
With all 16 fourth-round matches scheduled, the Williams sisters remained on course to play an all-family final for the second year in a row.
Five-time champion Venus led 6-1, love-1 when Ana Ivanovic retired with a left thigh injury. Two-time champion Serena beat Daniela Hantuchova 6-3, 6-1. Venus beat Serena in last year's final.
American 17-year-old Melanie Oudin's surprising run ended when she lost to No. 11-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska, 6-4, 7-5.
In men's play, No. 22 Ivo Karlovic hit 35 aces and beat No. 7 Fernando Verdasco 7-6 (5), 6-7 (4), 6-3, 7-6 (9). The 6-foot-10 Karlovic, who has yet to lose his serve in four matches, will face Federer on Wednesday.
Unseeded Lleyton Hewitt, the 2002 champion, rallied from a two-set deficit for the sixth time in his career to beat No. 23 Radek Stepanek 4-6, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2. No. 4 Novak Djokovic broke seven times and beat Dudi Sela 6-2, 6-4, 6-1.
On the hottest day of the tournament, the temperature reached 87 degrees on Centre Court before the rain arrived. The roof, built to ensure continuous play on the most famous court in tennis, wasn't needed during the first week of the tournament.
When the roof closed, many spectators responded with a standing ovation. Safina liked the new environment, too.
Comments
- Homer king Bonds made splash 10:33 a.m.
- U.N. climate conference opens 10:16 a.m.
- Stocks rise, investors await Bernanke 9:53 a.m.
- Pentagon: 16K troops to start surge 9:45 a.m.
- Feds mull mustang relocation plan 9:40 a.m.
- Officer fatally shot near Pittsburgh 9:35 a.m.
- Herzog, Harvey elected baseball HOF 9:32 a.m.
- U.K. paper: U.S. in lead over England 9:29 a.m.
- AOL ends ties with Time Warner 9:25 a.m.
- Senate to confront abortion in debate 9:10 a.m.
- BYU and Utah's bowl games
- BYU professor remembered
- Cougars going back to Vegas
- Y., U. to learn bowl destinations
- TCU to play Boise in Fiesta Bowl
- Utah/BYU rivalry can be more civil
- Utes excited to go to San Diego
- Bring the true spirit of Christmas
- The forgotten ship: USS Utah
- Y. profs: Beck not all-knowing
- Letters: Liberal because LDS
260 - Y. profs: Beck not all-knowing
232 - Hate not limited to 1 in-state rivalry
190 - Aggies shoot past Cougars
179 - TCU to play Boise in Fiesta Bowl
165 - N.Y. Senate rejects gay marriage
131 - George lost in rivalry hatefest
114 - Cougars going back to Vegas
106 - Ed Smart 'appalled' at testimony
98 - Harpring's NBA career is over
95
The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting (perhaps speculating) that Utah...
I got some e-mail from Aggie fans regarding a column I wrote last week...
Did you not tune into your teams bowl game last year? They were beaten by the...
BYU blue is a patented color. It's not Navy. It is patented with it's own...
has UT ever beaten Alabama?
NASA scientists tell us that we need to be at 350ppm CO2 emmisions and not...
CJ must have borrowed Boozers PR agent. How else would he make comments that...
Hey Confused, The reason the GOP doesn't want ethics reform is that the...
"It is an all or nothing tale--the Nephites are all good and the Lamanites...
do not forget Miles, so we can see his defending of CJ will bring us the...
He wouldn't have been dictating his books, he would have remembered where he...
Climategate reveals the global warmists trying to shut down peer review. If...




You can be the first to comment on this story.