London
\nRoger Federer and Serena Williams will be expected to maintain their flawless progress at Wimbledon as the title favourites head into the fourth round looking to survive the tournament\u2019s giant-killing carnage tomorrow.<\/p>\n
Federer has been in imperious mood in pursuit of his ninth Wimbledon crown, while Williams is rounding into form just as the seven-time champion\u2019s rivals have collapsed all around her.<\/p>\n
The status quo has been challenged like never before in the women\u2019s singles, with nine of the top 10 seeds crashing out before the Wimbledon last 16 for the first time in the Open area.<\/p>\n
In the men\u2019s draw, third seed Marin Cilic, fourth seed Alexander Zverev and sixth seed Grigor Dimitrov have all fallen.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s business was usual for Federer as the defending champion took his consecutive sets won at Wimbledon to 29 in a third round dismissal of Germany\u2019s Jan-Lennard Struff.<\/p>\n
Federer\u2019s 175th win from 200 career grass-court matches saw him overtake Jimmy Connors as the most successful male player on the surface.<\/p>\n
Next, the Swiss star faces French 22nd seed Adrian Mannarino for a place in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n
World number two Federer, eyeing a 21st Grand Slam title, has won all five of his previous meetings with Mannarino, a 30-year-old journeyman who has never been past the last 16 at a major.<\/p>\n
Although Federer is approaching peak form, he knows world number one Rafael Nadal yet to drop a set in his first three matches and three-time Wimbledon winner Novak Djokovic playing his way back to his best this week are lurking as potential final opponents.<\/p>\n
French Open champion Nadal, bidding for a first Wimbledon title since 2010, plays Czech world number 93 Jiri Vesely, while Djokovic takes on Russian world number 40 Karen Khachanov.<\/p>\n
\u201cNovak and Rafa, all these guys are still in the draw,\u201d Federer said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day I feel on our side not that much has happened. I know on the women\u2019s side more so.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the past it has made me nervous when I\u2019ve seen bigger guys go out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like, \u2018OK, it\u2019s me next time\u2019. I didn\u2019t feel the effect this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Federer\u2019s tie is one of 16 fourth round matches across the men\u2019s and women\u2019s events in a frenetic day of action at the All England Club.<\/p>\n
With the draw opening up in her favour, Williams is widely expected to make history with a first Grand Slam title since the birth of her daughter Olympia in September last year.<\/p>\n
A series of unexpected results have seen Garbine Muguruza, Maria Sharapova, Simona Halep, Petra Kvitova, Venus Williams and Caroline Wozniacki all eliminated.<\/p>\n
The 36-year-old faces Russian qualifier and fellow mother Evgeniya Rodina in the last 16.<\/p>\n
Williams will equal Margaret Court\u2019s record of 24 Grand Slam titles if she wins Wimbledon for the third time in the last four years.<\/p>\n
Having missed Wimbledon last year due to her pregnancy, Serena is on a 17-match winning streak at the All England Club.<\/p>\n
It is a remarkable record sure to alarm her opponents, but Williams, seeded 25th after her maternity leave, admits that fear factor can be a double-edged sword.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, there\u2019s definitely that aura, that kind of thing of playing Serena,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
London Roger Federer and Serena Williams will be expected to maintain their flawless progress at Wimbledon as the title favourites head into the fourth round looking to survive the tournament\u2019s giant-killing carnage tomorrow. Federer has been in imperious mood in pursuit of his ninth Wimbledon crown, while Williams is rounding into form just as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36504,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36505,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36503\/revisions\/36505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}