LAST UPDATE | 3 Jul 2021
ROGER FEDERER REACHED the Wimbledon last 16 for the 18th time on Saturday with a four-sets win over Cameron Norrie, the last British man in the tournament.
Eight-time champion Federer triumphed 6-4, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 and will be playing in the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the 69th time in his career.
“It’s a nice stat to hear. It proves to me when I wake up in the morning that has happened,” said Federer who will turn 40 in five weeks’ time.
“I have loved every minute and I hope there’s a bit more left in me. It’s a pleasure still playing right now.
“This one is special because I’m almost 40 – at this point it’s all a bonus and I will see how far I can go here.”
Federer is the third-oldest man to reach the round of 16 at Wimbledon in the Open Era –- after Pancho Gonzales (41) in 1969 and Ken Rosewall (40) in 1975.
He could have wrapped up Saturday’s match in straight sets when he had two break points in the 11th game of the third set.
However, Norrie dug deep to force the tie into a fourth set but when Federer broke for 5-4, there was no second opportunity.
Federer finished with 48 winners as he won his 104th Wimbledon match.
He will face Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego on Monday for a place in the quarter-finals.
Second seed Daniil Medvedev staged a stunning comeback to beat 2017 runner-up Marin Cilic and reach the Wimbledon fourth round for the first time on Saturday.
Medvedev triumphed 6-7 (3/7), 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 and will face Polish 14th seed Hubert Hurkacz for a place in the quarter-finals.
It was the first time in his career that Medvedev had won a match from two sets down.
Earlier, Nick Kyrgios was forced to retire from his Wimbledon third round match against Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime on Saturday with an abdominal injury.
The Australian won the first set 6-2 but dropped the second 6-1 when he called it quits.
“I did my abdomen at the end of the first set,” said the 26-year-old Kyrgios.
“I haven’t played at this level of tennis for a while and my serve is my main weapon. I need that to be firing on all cylinders.”
Alexander Zverev, meanwhile, was made to battle through to the fourth round at Wimbledon by a man who had knee surgery just last month.
On June 3 Taylor Fritz left the French Open in a wheelchair after injuring his knee in his second-round match. Two days later he had an operation.
His remarkable comeback at SW19 saw the 23-year-old beat fellow Americans Brandon Nakashima and Steve Johnson, and take the first set against fourth seed Zverev, before the German ran out a 6-7 (3) 6-4 6-3 7-6 (4) winner.
Elsewhere, World number five Dominic Thiem says making next month’s US Open will be “very, very tight” after he pulled out of Wimbledon with a wrist injury.
The New York tournament, where Austrian Thiem won his only Grand Slam in 2020, starts on August 30.
“Up until the US Open it will be very, very tight,” he told Sky Sports Austria.
