Another day, another victory, another set of new entries in the record books. Roger Federer continued his one-man assault on history here on Monday as a 6-0, 7-5, 6-4 victory over France’s Adrian Mannarino took the 36-year-old Swiss into the Wimbledon quarter-finals.
With every win here Federer is eclipsing records, plenty of them his own. He is through to the last eight at the All England Club for the 16th time, which extends his own open era record, and his 53rd appearance in a Grand Slam quarter-final will extend another record which he already owns.
The world No 2 is the first man in the open era to play in 20 consecutive Wimbledons, while no other man can match his open era tally of 73 appearances in Grand Slam tournaments. He has won more matches (95) at Wimbledon than at any of the other three Grand Slam events, while his total of 106 singles matches played at the All England Club is also an open era record.
This latest straight-sets victory means that Federer has now won 32 sets in succession here, though he has to win another two before he equals his personal Wimbledon record, which he set between 2005 and 2006.
The statistics, nevertheless, told only part of the story as Federer gave another grass-court master class, even if Mannarino’s improvement in the second and third sets slowed down the eight-times champion’s charge.
Once again the cornerstones of Federer’s game were his movement and his serve. At 36 the Swiss is moving as well as ever. His speed around the court, combined with his powers of anticipation, enable him to get into position to play his shots early, which can be particularly crucial on grass, where the low bounce give you less time to play your shots.
Federer served with all his usual consistency and precision. He has now won 81 games in a row on serve here, a run which dates back to his semi-final against Tomas Berdych last year. Nevertheless, he still has some way to go to beat Pete Sampras’ Wimbledon record of 118 consecutive games on serve, which the American set between 2000 and 2001.
Mannarino provided Federer with his biggest test so far. With his fellow countrymen Richard Gasquet, Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga slipping down the world rankings, the 30-year-old is now the French No 2 behind Lucas Pouille. He has never gone beyond the fourth round here, but this has been his most successful Grand Slam tournament in terms of matches won.
The world No 26 is comfortable on grass, having reached the final in Antalya last month. However, his head-to-head record against Federer – just one set won in their five previous meetings – hardly gave cause for encouragement.
Mannarino could hardly have made a worse start. He was struggling from the moment he lost the opening point with an unforced backhand error. Another error handed Federer his first break and from 15-15 in the second game the Swiss won 16 points in a row.
Federer was 5-0 up in 12 minutes, by which time he had dropped only two points. Mannarino won three more points in the following game, during which he became the first player here this year to have a break point against Federer, only for the Swiss to defend it with an ace. With just 16 minutes on the clock, Mannarino’s missed lob gave Federer the first set.
When Mannarino went 0-40 down in the opening game of the second set statisticians were starting to wonder whether they needed to research Federer’s fastest Wimbledon victories, but from out of nowhere the Frenchman found some form. His ace on the next point drew one of the biggest cheers of the afternoon, which was matched minutes later when he won his first game as Federer netted a forehand.
With Mannarino at last hitting the ball with a degree of confidence, there were no more breaks of serve until the 11th game. Two bad forehand errors saw Mannarino go 15-40 down and his missed backhand on the next point gave Federer the break. Any suspicions that Federer might have been seeing this as a walk in the park were dispelled with his huge roar of “C’mon!”
Having served out for the second set with two consecutive service winners, Federer needed only one more break to take the third.
Mannarino’s last chance of making a match of it came when Federer served at 3-4. The Swiss went 15-40 down after missing a forehand at the end of a 26-shot rally – the longest of the match – but won the next two points with an inside-out forehand winner and a service winner. Mannarino then had another break point which Federer saved with an ace.
The Frenchman was quickly punished for failing to take his chance as Federer broke serve for the fifth and last time and promptly served out for the match, which he won in an hour and 45 minutes with two successive service winners.
“I was very happy with the match,” Federer said afterwards. “It was a bit up-and-down, but I think that was due to his performance.”
He added: “It was an interesting beginning to the second set. It was crucial for him to stay in the match and not give me the lead straight away because I had 0-40 in that first game. It was a tough set.
“If he had won that second set the match would have been different, so it was great to win that first set so quickly. I always had that lead in the bag and then it was important for me to stay focused.”
