When Roger Federer was told he has not dropped serve since Halle, all he could do was a crack a joke.
The seven-time Wimbledon winner has not been broken so far this tournament and has faced just two break points en route to today’s quarter-final, which is incidentally his 45th at a major – the most appearances at that stage by any man in the Open Era.
When asked for a reason on how he has been holding serve for a run over 100 games, Federer said with a laugh: “Guys are returning terrible?
“No. I don’t know. I got things figured out at the moment. Clearly having the extra week helped me be perfectly prepared for Wimbledon. So I think less question marks going into this tournament.”
French No12 seed Gilles Simon will be looking to find a chink in Federer’s serving armour when he takes on the Swiss on Wednesday.
Their last two grand slam meetings both went to five sets – in the 2013 French Open and 2011 Australian Open – but Federer leads their head-to-head 5-2 and hasn’t lost to Simon in seven years.
“Gilles Simon is one of the best return players we have in the game. I would think I’ll be tested a lot. So that streak’s maybe coming to an end, in my opinion,” said Federer.
Playing his first Wimbledon quarter-final, Simon is in the last eight at a slam for just the second time in his career and first since the 2009 Australian Open.
Simon has also recorded four straight victories on the surface for the first time in his career.
“I think he’s playing really good right now,” Simon said. “I would just go there and try to play what I’m playing from the beginning of the tournament and from the beginning of the grass court season.
“We often had some close matches with Roger. Still he destroyed me once (in Rome 2013), so I’m ready that it can be difficult to face him.”
Another quarter-final will pit a Frenchman against a Swiss with Richard Gasquet taking on Stan Wawrinka in a battle of the two best one-handed backhands on tour.
French Open champion Wawrinka is bidding to become just the second Swiss man in history to reach the semi-finals after Federer.
Gasquet, who is 1-1 against Wawrinka, is back in the quarter-finals for the first time since 2007 having defeated Grigor Dimitrov and Nick Kyrgios en route.
Gasquet said: “I lost many times in a grand slam in a fourth round. It’s very good for me to be here. Now we will see what will happen. I am feeling good.”
