Federer wins 100th grass court match; Tsonga next

Six-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer survived an early scare before working hard to defeat Mikhail Youzhny 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 at The Championships on Monday evening to reach his 29th successive Grand Slam quarter-final.

The Swiss third seed dropped his first set of the tournament as Youzhny clinched a close tie-break, but he responded strongly by breaking the Russian twice to take the second set and level the match.

With the momentum on his side, the Swiss raced to a 5-0 lead in the third set. A resurgence from Youzhny saw him recoup one of the breaks, before Federer closed out the set in the ninth game for a commanding lead. The Basel native then broke at the start of the fourth set and went on to close out victory with another service break in the ninth game after just over three hours.

“I thought even though I lost the first set it was good tennis,” reflected Federer. “He didn't have a break point. I played a good breaker actually. I thought overall we played a good match from start to finish. Good rallies, good atmosphere; it was fun.”

The victory marked Federer’s 100th grass-court win. He is the second most successive active player on grass, trailing only Lleyton Hewitt (104-27). It was also his 223rd win in Grand Slam play (223-32), moving him ahead of Ivan Lendl into No. 3 on Open Era wins list behind Jimmy Connors (233-49) and Andre Agassi (224-53).

The 29-year-old Federer is bidding for a record-equalling seventh Wimbledon title this year after victories in 2003-2007 and again in 2009, and is looking to win his first major title since the 2010 Australian Open (d. Murray). Three weeks ago he finished runner-up at Roland Garros (l. to Nadal).

For a place in the semi-finals, Federer will face 12th-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who dismissed the No. 7 seed from Spain, David Ferrer, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(1) in just over two hours. Tsonga hit 37 winners and converted three of his nine break point opportunities.

Federer takes a 4-1 career lead into the clash with Tsonga, beating the Frenchman most recently during the clay-court swing at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.

Date: 28.06.2011, Source: ATP