Swiss star reflects on work ethic
Roger Federer has been a household name at Wimbledon since winning the first of seven titles at the All England Club in 2003. But success had not always been guaranteed for the Swiss, whose early career was marked by inconsistency even after an epic upset of six-time champion Pete Sampras in 2001 in the fourth round at Wimbledon.
“I had to go my path. My path was different,” said Federer, who found inspiration from two key figures in his early twenties. “It was left and right and trying to adjust and find myself. Eventually, I found the joy in working hard and feeling the pain, understanding why I’m going on the treadmill, why I’m going to the weight room.”
Despite being the most accomplished Swiss player ever, Federer believes he would not be the player he is today had he not followed the example of wife Mirka, a WTA Tour player who reached a career high of No. 76 in the world in 2001.
“I was just watching her train and it’s incredible how you can put your head down, train for five, six hours straight without losing interest. I was losing interest within an hour,” Federer said. “I was more just admiring it rather than thinking I could do the same one day, to be quite honest. I needed everything to be explained to me. When finally the penny dropped, it was very clear to me, why I was doing the off-court work for the on-court.”
“Tony Roche also helped me in a big way, just getting my mind right in this sense,” said Federer of the Aussie legend, who coached him from 2005 to 2007. “When Tony asked me, ‘can you play seven times five sets?’ I looked at him and said ‘I don’t know.’
“[His mindset] was sort of old school, just being able to work for hour after hour after hour. Ever since, it’s not been a problem for me to do that.”
For Federer, finding the motivation to work hard is no longer an issue. Quite the contrary.
“Now, I actually have my coaching team slowing me down, [coach] Severin [Luthi] telling me it’s okay, that I don’t need to do more than two, three hours straight anymore,” the 34 year old said.
After breezing through his first three matches in straight sets, Federer will now have time to take a breather.
“I’m looking forward to my day off tomorrow. On Sunday, I’ll practise to keep that intensity, play points, go to the gym again, and Monday hopefully I’ll have great energy when I come back.”
Federer will face either Steve Johnson or Grigor Dimitrov in the fourth round.
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Third seed advances with ease
Roger Federer once again dashed British hopes of a local favourite advancing at Wimbledon. Two days after beating qualifier Marcus Willis, the third seed dispatched Daniel Evans in the third round on Friday, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2.
“I’m clearly very happy because the goal was to get to the second week somehow,” said Federer. “Now I’ve won nine straight sets, which is great. I’m happy with where I am now. I’ll rest a couple of days [and] hopefully step it up a little bit more again on Monday.”
The seven-time Wimbledon champion raced out to a 4-0 lead in both the first and second sets of the match. Federer gave Evans little to work with, hitting just 11 unforced errors and no double faults in the first two sets to take a commanding two-sets lead.
Federer went on a five-game run in the third set from 0-1 to 5-1 before closing out the match on his serve two games later. He was particularly impressive on serve, hitting 11 aces and losing just five points all match when he got his first serve in play.
Federer has now reached the second week at Wimbledon for the 14th time. Next up for him is the winner of the match between Steve Johnson and Grigor Dimitrov. Federer has never played Johnson, but leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry with Dimitrov 5-0, including two victories this year in the quarter-finals at Brisbane and the third round at the Australian Open.
The defending champion is in danger on Court No. 1
Sam Querrey is one set away from the biggest upset of the tournament on Friday at Wimbledon. The American led top seed and defending champion Novak Djokovic, 7-6(6), 6-1, when play was suspended due to rain.
Querrey was unable to convert on two set points at 6/4 in the first-set tiebreak, but made good on his third opportunity. He earned the first break of the match up 2-1 in the second set and then broke Djokovic again in the Serbian’s following service game. Querrey clinched the second set with an ace before the match was called.
Djokovic currently holds all four majors and is chasing a calendar year Slam. He is on a 30-match winning streak in Grand Slams, with his most recent loss coming to Stan Wawrinka in last year’s Roland Garros final. Djokovic leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry with Querrey 8-1.
Querrey, ranked No. 41 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, last reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2010. He is winless in eight previous career matches against No. 1 players. His biggest win came against a then-No. 2 Djokovic in Paris in October 2012.
The last time Djokovic rallied from two sets down at a Grand Slam came last year at Wimbledon, when he defeated Kevin Anderson in the fourth round.
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Great Britain’s Andy Murray will be hoping to maintain his good form at this year’s Wimbledon when he takes on Australia’s John Millman on Saturday.
Murray is the last British player left in singles’ competition after defeats for Dan Evans and Tara Moore on Friday.
In the opening two rounds, Murray, the 2013 Wimbledon champion, has not lost a set and only dropped 15 games.
“If you can win matches easily it does help because you can rest. It has been a good start,” he said.
Millman, 27, is ranked 67th in the world and nearly quit tennis after suffering a serious shoulder injury three years ago.
“I worked in the City for a little bit at one of my mate’s companies – I was dressed up in a suit each day going in,” said Millman, who admitted he had “never been inside Centre Court or Court One”.
“I really have an appreciation of these moments right now, because there was a big time there where I wasn’t too confident.
“You dream of playing on the biggest courts against the biggest players. I feel as if I deserve to be there and I’m going to give it everything.”
That third-round match is scheduled to be second on Centre Court on Saturday and will be the first time Murray and Millman have met in a Grand Slam.
Murray has only played Millman once, winning two sets to one in the second round of the Brisbane International on a hard court in January 2013.
“I didn’t know him before we played in Brisbane,” said the world number two. “He played extremely well that day. He was ranked about 200 at the time.
“I came off the court and I said to Dani Vallverdu, who I was working with, ‘He’s top 50 for sure if he keeps going’.
“He moves well and has a great attitude. But obviously it’s a different surface, different place. The match-up will be a bit different on a grass court.”
| Centre Court order of play (13:00 BST start) |
|---|
| [5] Simona Halep (Rom) v Kiki Bertens (Ned) [26] |
| John Millman (Aus) v Andy Murray (GB) [2] |
| [27] Jack Sock (US) v Milos Raonic (Can) [6] |
World number one Novak Djokovic has won 30 Grand Slam matches in a row, with his last loss coming against Stan Wawrinka in the final of the French Open in June 2015.
But he has a fight on his hands when he resumes on Court One on Saturday two sets to love behind against America’s 28th seed Sam Querrey.
Querrey took the first set on a tie-break before cruising through the second 6-1 only for the rain to arrive, meaning they have to conclude their third-round match on Saturday.
“Querrey maintained his level and Djokovic looked as though he was uninterested,” four-time Wimbledon semi-finalist Tim Henman told BBC Sport.
“He obviously isn’t but since he is down two sets to love he will be happy to have a break and talk to his team.
“He has got to draw on last year’s experience. He is certainly hoping that history repeats itself.”
Last year, Djokovic trailed South African Kevin Anderson by the same margin in their last-16 tie when bad light stopped play and the Serb came back to win a day later.
Australia’s Nick Kyrgios, who beat German Dustin Brown in a five-set thriller on Friday, is also in action on Court One on Saturday.
He takes on Spain’s Feliciano Lopez with the winner playing the victor of the Murray-Millman match in the last 16.
| Court One order of play (12:00 BST start) |
|---|
| [1] Novak Djokovic (Ser) v Sam Querrey (US) [28] |
| Alize Cornet (Fra) v Madison Keys (US) [9] |
| [15] Nick Kyrgios (Aus) v Feliciano Lopez (Spa) [22] |
Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova is going to have a busy schedule if she is going to have more success at the tournament, as she is yet to finish her second-round singles match.
She returns on Saturday with work to do to stay in the competition after losing the first set 7-5 to Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova.
Canadian Eugenie Bouchard, a Wimbledon runner-up two years ago, defeated British number one Johanna Konta on Thursday and is in action against 19th seed Dominika Cibulkova.
| Court Two order of play (11:00 BST start) |
|---|
| Carina Witthoeft (Ger) v Angelique Kerber (Ger) [4] |
| [10] Petra Kvitova (Cze) v Ekaterina Makarova (Rus) |
| [19] Dominika Cibulkova (Svk) v Eugenie Bouchard (Can) |
| [18] John Isner (US) v Jo Wilfried-Tsonga (Fra) [12] |
Wimbledon organisers have already announced that there will be play on the middle Sunday of the tournament for the first time since 2004.
The opening week’s schedule has been disrupted by rain delays and there could be more frustration for tennis fans on outside courts on Saturday.
Steve Cleaton of BBC Weather said: “It will be bright, breezy and dry for lengthy periods, but there will be the risk of occasional showers through the course of the day.
“Any showers should move through fairly quickly, but they could be heavy.”
You can now add tennis alerts in the BBC Sport app – simply head to the menu and My Alerts section
British interest in the women’s singles at Wimbledon ended with Tara Moore’s defeat by Russian 13th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second round.
Wildcard Moore ranked 227 in the world lost 6-1 2-6 6-3 on court three – the last of six British women to fall in the singles.
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Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the No.12 seed, needed 82 minutes to beat Juan Monaco 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 on Friday at Wimbledon. It was the first grass-court meeting between the pair, who have now met at all four Grand Slams. The Frenchman hit 32 winners en route to improving his FedEx ATP Head2Head record against Monaco to 6-0.
“Today I played pretty good tennis,” said Tsonga, who is a two-time semi-finalist (2011, 2012). “It was a lot better than my first round, so I’m really happy. [I] hope I will continue in this way.” The Frenchman awaits the winner of No.18 seed John Isner and Matthew Barton in the third round.
In the first meeting between No. 15 seed Nick Kyrgios and wild card Dustin Brown, the pair were tied at two-sets-all when play was suspended due to rain. Down 0/40 in the seventh game of the fifth set, Brown reeled off a bevy of winners to get to deuce. Kyrgios earned another break point but Mother Nature had other ideas as the skies opened up.
Kyrgios is looking to reach the third round at the All England Club for the third straight year. Last year, Brown equalled his best Wimbledon result by reaching the third round after upsetting tenth seed Rafael Nadal. The winner will next face either No. 22 seed Feliciano Lopez or Fabio Fognini.
Defending champion Serena Williams and sister Venus both survived scares to progress at Wimbledon.
Serena beat the world number 65 Christina McHale, 6-7 (7) 6-2 6-4 on Centre Court while Venus won 7-5 4-6 10-8 against teenager Daria Kasatkina.
Serena trailed 2-0 at the start of the deciding set but won in two hours 29 minutes on Centre Court against her fellow American.
The top seed hit 40 unforced errors in the rain-affected match.
Shortly after an interruption while the Centre Court roof was closed because of rain, the world number one had a set point but failed to convert.
She thought she had won the opener but was denied by a narrow Hawk-Eye overrule before the impressive McHale went on to claim it on a tie-break.
Serena said: “It was a really good match. She played great and always does against me.
“I know that mentally no one can break me and I knew being a break down in third set I had to put my mind to it and that’s what I did.”
In the BBC Sport app you can now set alerts for football, cricket, tennis, golf and formula 1 news – ensuring you never miss any of the biggest stories from your favourite sports.
These five new alerts complement Top Stories, which already send out breaking sport news and reaction to more than 400,000 subscribers.
The alerts are easy to add – head to the My Alerts section of the menu and then choose the topics you are interested in.
You can also add score alerts for your football, rugby and cricket teams as well as Formula 1.
As an example, you might be a fan of Manchester City, the English football team, Lancashire cricket and Salford Rugby League, while also enjoying tennis.
In the app, you could set score alerts for Man City, England football, Salford and Lancashire, while also setting news alerts for football, cricket and tennis.
Whether it’s a try for Salford, the start of a key Andy Murray match, a major football signing or the latest England cricket squad announcement, the news that matters to you would arrive on your homescreen.
Download the BBC Sport app on Android, iOS (Apple) or Kindle.
Alerts are notifications which pop up on to your phone’s homescreen with key information. For example, if you set alerts for a football or rugby team, you can receive an alert every time a goal or point is scored in one of their matches, as well as alerts with the line-ups, half-time and full-time score.
Similarly, cricket fans might like to add England cricket alerts – these will provide notifications every time a wicket falls (with the batsman’s score and team score), as well as alerts for end of innings scores and results.
The level of detail can be set for each type of alert, for example you might not want to know every time a wicket falls, you might just want the result. Similarly you might want Formula 1 alerts for qualifying but not the race itself if you’re planning to watch the highlights later.
To add the alerts follow these steps.
You can of course easily turn alerts off – if, for example, you do not want to know the results of a match you’re planning to watch highlights of on Match of the Day.