Roger Federer ovecame a spirited challenge from Philipp Kohlschreiber to advance in to the fourth round of these Wimbledon championships.
Although Federer won his opening service game today before the clock on Centre Court showed that a minute had been completed, and he had established a 4-0 lead within 16 minutes, it ended up taking him more than two and a half hours to finish off his third-round victory over Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber and to reach the second week. For the first time in the tournament, Federer dropped a set.
The Swiss, who is hoping to become the first man in history to win 15 slams, went through into the last 16 with a 6-3, 6-2, 6-7, 6-1 victory.
The opening game of the match was completed so quickly, with Federer hitting three aces and one unreturnable serve to hold to love, that the clock in the corner of the stadium was still indicating that 0 minutes of play had been completed.
In those first 60 seconds of the match, Federer had time to both win the opening game and to amble round to the baseline on the other side of the net.
And Kohlschreiber quickly found himself at 0-40 down on his serve, so Federer had won the first seven points of the match. Kohlschreiber worked his way back to deuce, but Federer held another break point in the game and broke him anyway.
Within 16 minutes, Federer was 4-0 up. If Federer had taken all his opportunities in the first set, he could have won it 6-0.
Watching all this was Federer's heavily pregnant wife, Mirka. She had missed his second-round match because she was feeling unwell, but she was back in the front row of the players' guest-box this afternoon as her husband produced some exceptional tennis, and also some not-so-exceptional tennis on a muggy day at Wimbledon.
Kohlschreiber, ranked 32 in the world, and whose father used to run a petrol station, had a fine win at this year's French Open, when he beat Novak Djokovic, Serbia's world No 4.
And he also made the semi-finals of the pre-Wimbledon grass-court tournament in Halle in Germany, an event that Federer skipped as he felt emotionally exhausted from winning the French Open for the first time. The German didn't want to just be Federer's foil on Centre Court.
Federer led 4-2 in the third set, but he lost his concentration, and then the advantage, with the German breaking him back for 4-4.
The set went into a tiebreak. When Federer was 4-5 down in it, he made an unfortunate error, hooking a forehand wide into the tramlines. Federer saved the first of Kohlschreiber's set points, but the German converted his second when he hit a backhand winner into the open court.
Federer left the court for a bathroom break. When Federer returned, it was the Swiss who dominated the fourth set.Federer has the weekend off.
"I haven't got a whole lot planned for the weekend. I'm happy and feeling great physically," said Federer. "Maybe Mirka and I will go into the city."
On Monday afternoon, Federer will play Robin Soderling, whom he beat in this year's French Open final. Federer has won his 10 previous matches against the Swede.
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