Six-time champion Roger Federer reached the Wimbledon third round on Wednesday with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 win over Italy’s Fabio Fognini, a regal performance witnessed by Britain’s Prince Charles. The third-seeded Swiss took just 74 minutes to defeat Fognini, who received a quick lesson in bowing from Federer before they walked onto Centre Court where Charles, on a first visit to the All England Club in more than 40 years, was watching with his wife Camilla.
Federer, chasing Pete Sampras’s record of seven Wimbledon titles, fired 13 aces and 35 winners in his rapid victory and has lost just nine games in his first two rounds. “I’m very happy to have won and to be back on Centre Court. It’s great to have that feeling and to see Charles and Camilla up there is just great for tennis,” said Federer. “We were told beforehand that they were coming and we were asked to bow. We said no problem.” Federer who has lost in the quarter-finals here for the last two years, next faces either France’s Julien Benneteau or Michael Russell of the United States for a place in the last 16. He said he felt no ill-effects from falling to the ground in the third set whe he lost his footing, adding he was happy with his form. “I’m serving well, my forehand and backhand are working well and it’s great to win so comfortably.”
US Open champion Samantha Stosur suffered another Wimbledon nightmare as the fifth seed crashed out in the second round, meaning there are no Australians left in either the men’s or women’s singles. Stosur, 28, had never been past the third round in nine previous visits to the All England Club and that miserable sequence was extended with a 6-2, 0-6, 6-4 defeat against Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands. Stosur lost her rhythm in the final set on Court One and allowed the world number 72 to take advantage.
Meanwhile, Italy’s 10th seed Sara Errani, the French Open runner-up, needed just seven seconds to complete her first round win over American qualifier Coco Vandeweghe after the tie had been rained off Tuesday. Errani had been on match point but on the resumption she didn’t have to hit a ball as her opponent handed her victory on a double fault as she claimed a 6-1, 6-3 victory. Both players broke down in fits of giggles as they shook hands at the net. Heather Watson ended Britain’s 10-year wait to have a woman in the third round as the youngster swept to a 6-1, 6-4 victory over America’s Jamie Hampton. “I’m just so pleased to get through that match. It definitely wasn’t easy and I knew I had to play my best,” 20-year-old Watson said. “She wasn’t at her best at the beginning and I tried to take advantage. Then at the end I was telling myself not to double-fault on match point.” Kimiko Date-Krumm, at 41 comfortably the oldest player at Wimbledon, crashed out in the first round, the Japanese number one losing in three sets to Ukraine’s Kateryna Bondarenko. Date-Krumm took the first set but lost 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 on the 300-capacity Court 16, which was packed with Japanese fans. The world number 82 gave away 21 break points in the match, which lasted just under two hours.
Date-Krumm reached the semi-finals here in 1996 before retiring. Also going out was Slovak 13th seed Dominika Cibulkova, a 6-4, 6-1 loser to Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic. German 15th seed Sabine Lisicki went through with a 3-6, 6-2, 8-6 win over Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski.
