Federer Ignoring Records Ahead of Anderson Clash

Switzerland’s Roger Federer has said that he isn’t thinking about any Wimbledon records ahead of his match against Kevin Anderson.

The top seed took a comfortable 6-0 7-5 6-4 victory against Adrian Mannarino in the fourth round. In the process, he has extended his run of consecutive sets won at the All England Club to 32.

He achieved that feat back in 2005 and 2006 when he won his third and fourth Wimbledon crowns. The Swiss ace can beat it if he gets a straight-sets win over the South African.

“I feel like these streaks just happen,” Federer said. “You can’t plan for them anyway because one point can change the outcome of a set.

“Of course, if you give yourself maximum chances, you’re playing well, you have super focus, then these streaks are kind of possible.

“I’m equally happy if I would have won all the matches in four sets. That it happened to be in straights, it helps me for the season and to save energy for the rest of the tournament.

“I don’t think it’s something anybody aims for, to win every match in straight sets. It’s like today, I hope I get off to a good start, go from there.

“If it happens, it happens. It shouldn’t be a shock, and, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe it, I lost a set’. It is part of what a tennis match is about.”

Federer dropped a mere five points in the opening set against Mannarino and saved his first break point with an ace.

Meanwhil, world number 26, Mannarino raised his game in the following two sets. He had three break-point opportunities during the third set but saved them all.

Federer was surprised by the quick nature of the first set. He said: “I told my team the other day that for me also, after all these years, it is surprising to be the No 1 seed, in the top two in the rankings at 36. I didn’t think that was ever going to happen.

“That sometimes there is a set like this against a player who is not the biggest server, it can happen. Then he showed that he is top 30 after all, he played two good sets after that.

“I was also surprised the first set was so fast, especially 16 minutes. That was too fast. Shouldn’t really happen, but thankfully they do for me. I probably won’t have another 6-0 set this week, so I’ll enjoy this one.”