Federer was appearing at Wimbledon for the 20th time and 15 years after he first won the title, there were inevitably questions about whether the father of four had played his last match at his favourite tournament.
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The path is still open for Federer to face Rafael Nadal in the Wimbledon Men’s Singles final if both players win their next two matches.
The eight-time champion and 20-time grand slam victor last played a Wimbledon match outside Centre Court in 2015.
Meanwhile, fifth seed Juan Martin del Potro met stubborn resistance from Frenchman Gilles Simon and had to settle for a suspension of their Wimbledon fourth round match as he led 7-6 (1), 7-6 (5), 5-7 after more than three hours on Court Two.
“Luckily for me it didn’t happen”, Djokovic said after he romped to a 6-4 6-2 6-2 win to reach the last eight for a 10th time.
Now the 32-year-old South African moves on to a semifinal against No. 9 John Isner of the USA or No. 13 Milos Raonic of Canada.
How hard was it to see this coming?
The only other times he has surrendered a two-set lead came against Lleyton Hewitt in Switzerland’s 2003 Davis Cup semi-final loss to Australia in Melbourne, to David Nalbandian in the 2005 Masters Cup decider.
‘Sometimes you don’t feel good, and you try your best, ‘ he said in his post-match conference.
However since then, the 2.03m-tall Anderson has improved markedly and Wednesday’s match will be their first meeting on grass. The Serb defeated Karen Khachanov in straight sets, but if the match had gone to a fourth set, it would have probably been postponed until Tuesday.
When Anderson broke again in the fourth, Federer was suddenly on the ropes.
There was little sign of the drama which unfolded when Federer raced through the first set in 26 minutes.
Federer couldn’t convert a break point at 3-4 and as the final set headed into extra time a lone voice in the crowd, mindful of England’s imminent World Cup semi-final against Croatia, shouted out “Hurry up I need to watch the football”. Nor had anyone over the last 34 sets Federer had played at the All England Club, until Anderson nicked the third. I went with the flow of my routines and everything that I have to do to get myself ready for the match, if I get to play today.
“I don’t think it would have changed if I played there previous year”. It’s the second-farthest he’s advanced in a Grand Slam tournament, having made the final of the US Open in 2017. I think that was the key at the end.
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“Do you think I ruined the court?” he bellowed at Ramos.
