Under the closed roof at Centre Court is where Federer plays the best. The Swiss was proving this thesis in today’s match, as he took a quick 4-0 lead. Evans took one break back to make it 4-2, but that didn’t change the outcome. Federer had 2 more break points the next game, but Evans showed great mental strength and held Federer off. The Swiss still controlled the match and had his first set point at 5-3. Evans held, but Federer had no problem serving the first set out for 6-4.
Federer got another double break to start the second set as well, but this time, despite having a break point, Federer kept both the breaks. The World No. 3 easily took the second set 6-2, as Dan Evans hit a backhand return out. Third set seemed to go more level as both players held at 1-1. Federer than took 2 breaks just like in the other sets and comfortably held. He lost only 3 points on serve in the entire third set, serving out the match with a straight game. After just 1 hour and 29 minutes, Federer is through to the 4th round after beating Dan Evans 6-4 6-2 6-2.
“I’m clearly very happy because, well, the goal was to get to the second week somehow. Now I won nine straight sets, which is great. Plus with the wet weather that we’ve seen, the opponents that I had, never quite sure.” reacted Federer to his run at SW19 so far.
“He doesn’t take much time between points. So do I. All of a sudden, next thing you know, you’ve played three games and you’ve only spent five minutes doing it. There can be swings very quickly if you’re not careful. I think I did a good job of actually serving well again,” reflected Federer on the match and his opponent. “I got off to a great start in all three sets, which put Dan under a lot of pressure right away. He couldn’t get through me. I see here he had no aces against me. That’s how I felt. He was always going to have a tough time on his serve because he’s not the biggest guy.”
One of the biggest contrasts in this match were the serving performances of the players. Federer, as always, put out great serves, winning 89% of points after first serve and serving 11 aces. Dan Evans, on the contrary, won only 48% of points after first serve and got broken 6 times in the match. Next opponent of the 3rd seed will be one of the dangerous unseeded players; Steve Johnson or Grigor Dimitrov. Their match got interrupted by rain at 4-3 for Johnson, who is up by a break.
