Wimbledon: Federer downs Groth to enter last-16

Nadal conqueror Brown bites the dust in third round

LONDON: Seven-time champion Roger Federer defeated big-serving Australian Sam Groth to reach the Wimbledon last-16 on Saturday.

Second seed Federer clinched a 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-2 victory over world number 69 Groth who fired a 147mph ace in the third game.

Federer will next face Spanish 20th seed Roberto Bautista Agut for a place in the quarter-finals. “I’m very happy. It has been a hot week but thankfully I have had easy matches going through without too many long four or five setters,” said Federer. “Now we are looking ahead and there are only big matches.”

Meanwhile, US Open champion Marin Cilic took just two games to see off John Isner after returning to finish off their Wimbledon match poised at 10-10 in the final set.

The big-serving duo have been involved in the two longest matches ever played at Wimbledon so it was no surprise that their third-round encounter rumbled on into a second day after being called off for bad light on Friday.

Croatian Cilic, the ninth seed, beat the US 17th seed 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (6/8), 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 12-10 on Court One in a match that lasted four hours and 31 minutes in total.

“I was playing really well yesterday and throughout the whole match, I was the one who was putting more pressure on the returns,” said Cilic.

Cilic sent down 35 aces, while Isner hit 37. He finally won on an Isner double fault on Cilic’s fourth match point.

Nadal’s conqueror Brown downed

Dustin Brown’s Wimbledon flame fizzled out in a four-set defeat by Viktor Troicki two days after the dreadlocked journeyman illuminated the All England Club by beating twice champion Rafa Nadal.

The 30-year-old German and his distinctive waist-length hair sent tremors through tennis when he roughed up the Spaniard with a serve-volley barrage to reach the third round, but the 22nd-seeded Troicki brought the fairytale to an abrupt end.

The Serb wrapped up a 6-4, 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 6-3 win to add Brown’s name to a group of players who beat Nadal when ranked 100 or below and then exited the tournament at the very next stage.

Following on from Lukas Rosol (100), Steve Darcis (135) and Nick Kyrgios (144), the 102nd-ranked Brown failed to build on his stunning upset and was brought down to earth with a bump on a sun-baked Court Three.

“It doesn’t make a difference if I lost today or not, no one will ever be able to take that [beating Nadal] away from me,” said Brown, the son of a German mother and Jamaican father.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2015.

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