Roger Federer has bowed out of the Men’s singles in the Wimbledon Tennis championships. In London today, the top seed lost to Kevin Anderson of South Africa in five sets 6-7, 7-6, 5-7, 4-6, 11-13 in the quarterfinals. Another quarterfinal match between Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin Del Potro is now in progress.
Anderson pulled off the upset thanks to 28 aces and clutch play on break points throughout the match. He also appeared to benefit from the lack of a tiebreaker in the fifth set, as the 36-year-old Swiss wore down over the course of the four-hour-plus contest, reports Efe.
The match had all the makings of a routine Federer victory after the first set, which the Swiss great won with two service breaks and the loss of just one point on his serve.
The eight-time #Wimbledon champion reflects on his shock loss to Anderson.https://t.co/BxRKWYKs3n
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 12, 2018
But Anderson worked his way into the match in the second set, which he narrowly lost in a tiebreaker after the two players had traded service breaks.
The turning point came late in the third set. Anderson, after saving a match point on his serve in the 10th game, broke Federer’s serve in the ensuing game and then clinched the set with a final service hold.
One service break in the seventh game of the fourth set was then all Anderson would need to force a decider.
As the match wore on, the 36-year-old Federer seemed physically depleted, while the 2.03-meter (6-foot-8) Anderson kept recording one service hold after another until finally getting a crucial service break in the 23rd game of the fifth set.
He then finished off the win one game later when Federer was unable to return one last big serve off the South African’s racquet.
“I guess there was definitely a moment (where I lost control of the match) at some point,” Federer was quoted as saying on the ATP World Tour’s Web site. “Is it missing match points? Is it getting broken at 5-All after that?”