| Friday, 27 June 2008 Written by Ronald Atkin Another day, another doddle on Centre Court for the five-time men's champion, Roger Federer. He brushed aside the French journeyman Marc Gicquel 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 in one hour 22 minutes to reach the last 16. The fact that the start of the match was delayed for one and a half hours by rain merely acted as a stay of execution for the 31-year-old Gicquel, ranked 60th in the world and playing only his second Wimbledon.
Gicquel has a formidable forehand, as he regularly demonstrated, but not a lot else to disturb the champion, who was never remotely in danger of being edged out of his comfort zone.
Federer has now won three rounds in straight sets while conceding just 27 games, an easy ride that he will doubtless appreciate with harder second week battles inevitable, starting with Lleyton Hewitt on Monday.
Straightforward though the victory was, there were enough indications that Federer's formidable game is not quite fully assembled, notably the number of forehands finding the net.
At least Gicquel came up with an eye-opener, breaking Federer in the opening game. It was an impertinence for which he was promptly punished. The number one seed bounced back by capturing the French delivery. He raced to 5-2 up before Gicquel managed briefly to stem the flood of misfortune, fighting off two set points before clinging on to his serve. The reprieve was brief indeed as Federer claimed the first set with his fourth ace after 32 minutes.
With the outcome clearly a certainty, Federer decided to entertain the audience with a masterclass of the game's finer points. A break of the Gicquel serve left the Frenchman at the starting gate as the Swiss ran away with the second set in 29 minutes, closing it out with another break of serve.
The third and final set, of just 20 minutes' duration, was a continuation of the lesson, with Federer the dancing master and Gicquel merely a spectator as the classic strokes unrolled, the odd forehand error excepted.
It was Federer's 38th consecutive win at Wimbledon and one so comfortably achieved on his favourite court with nine aces, 34 outright winners and a first serve percentage of 72 that he might have been wearing carpet slippers. John McEnroe described the sight as "a master at work".
| Centre Court - Gentlemen's Singles - 3rd Round | |
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Match Statistics
