Federer reaches quarterfinals at Wimbledon

Published: Monday, June 29, 2009 12:37 p.m. MDT
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 

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."

Story continues below

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

You can be the first to comment on this story.

Image
Sang Tan, Associated Press

Roger Federer of Switzerland plays a return to Robin Soderling of Sweden during their fourth round singles match at Wimbledon Monday.

previousnext

Latest comments

Obama: More troops with deadline

Yepper's, you betcha, (as Sarah Palin would say), the same DNA is running in...

Wouldn't you think the victim would have been killed INSIDE the home if he...

Max Hall: a fixture in rivalry lore

The bottom line is no matter how much you don't like the other team you don't...

Letters: Hatred is uncalled for

I HATE THE U | 12:02 p.m. You all have similar stories because they are...

This is a really cool story, thanks for writing it 7 congrats to the family.

MWC '09 season in review

No matter what the cougs do - they will be linked to the Vegas bowl - enjoy...

JT is an excellent player and I hate when people bag on him. Yes, he has poor...

6 sons soar as Eagle Scouts

What does scouting actually have to do with being awesome?... Answer:...

Letters: Left-wing AP

'And your last sad attempt, the James Early Ray "quote" is simply a lie.' -...

"One thing you can't hide, is when you're crippled inside." John Lennon.

Advertisements