Second seed Roger Federer is through to the last 16 of the men’s singles at Wimbledon, despite dropping a set on his way to a Centre Court victory over Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber.
The Swiss, bidding for his sixth success at the grass-court grand slam, set-up a fourth round clash with Sweden’s Robin Soderling — his victim in last month’s French Open final — with a 6-3 6-2 6-7 6-1 win over the 27th seed. Federer, who now has the whole weekend to rest before taking on Soderling, told Press Association Sport: “It has been a good first week. I thought this was my best match of the tournament even though I lost a set. “It’s fine as long as you come through without losing too much energy. It will be nice to have Saturday and Sunday off and get rid of the pressure for a day or so.
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“I felt a lot of pressure two years ago but I feel relaxed now. It’s going to be an exciting second week,” added Federer. Meanwhile, 13th seed Soderling maintained the good form he showed at Roland Garros with a 7-6 6-4 6-4 win over unseeded Spaniard Nicolas Almagro. Fourth seed Novak Djokovic remains a possible semifinal opponent for Federer and the Serb produced an impressive performance in despatching 28th-seeded American Mardy Fish 6-4 6-4 6-4. Elsewhere, seventh seed Fernando Verdasco of Spain has also reached the last 16 of the tournament despite dropping the first set in a 4-6 6-1 6-4 7-6 win over 32nd-seeded compatriot Albert Montanes. Verdasco will now face big-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic, who caused a minor shock in dumping out ninth-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in a tight match — going through 7-6 6-7 7-5 7-6. There was another surprise when Israeli Dudi Sela, who dumped former U.S.Open champion Marat Safin out of the competition, continued his giant-killing ways with 7-6 7-5 2-6 7-5 success over 15th seed Tommy Rodrebo of Spain.
