Roger Federer beats Robin Soderling to reach quarter-finals at Wimbledon
• Five-times champion beats 13th seed in straight sets
• Tommy Haas reaches his first Wimbledon quarter-final
* guardian.co.uk, Monday 29 June 2009 15.30 BST
Roger Federer secured his quarter-final place with a straight-sets win over Sweden’s Robin Soderling, 6-4, 7-6, 7-6, taking both tie-breaks 7-5.
The world No2 thus needed only a single break of serve to win his fourth-round match, which was a repeat of last month’s French Open final.
The Swede spurned a chance in the third-set tie-break when he was leading with a mini-break. At 5-4, with Soderling serving, Federer hit a wonderful forehand winner to level the game at 5-5, and then the Swede served an untimely double fault to gift Federer his first and only match point.
“Today was pretty much a serving contest,” said Federer. “It was just hard to get through, a dangerous match. I thought Robin served great and thank God he served a double fault in the tie-break otherwise it could have gone to four sets.
“I’m happy to be through four matches already, I gave myself a chance back in the quarters and I’m looking forward to my next match.”
Federer will now play Ivo Karlovic after the big-serving Croat beat Spain’s Fernando Verdasco, seeded No7 here at Wimbledon, in a four-set match 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 7-6 (11-9).
Germany’s Tommy Haas reached the quarter-finals of Wimbledon for the first time in his career with a straight-sets victory over Russia’s Igor Andreev. Haas, the 24th seed, won a thrilling five-set match against Marin Cilic in the third round but needed only three sets today to see off the 29th seed, winning 7-6, 6-4, 6-4.
He will face the fourth-seeded Novak Djokovic in the last eight after the Serb raced to a straight-sets victory of his own against Israel’s Dudi Sela. Djokovic, who lost to Haas in the final of the Halle tournament on grass earlier this month, was rarely troubled on the way to a 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 win.
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