Agencies
London, July 8
Seven-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer continued his impressive progress as he swept aside France's Gilles Simon to reach the semi-finals.
Federer was broken for the first time in 68 service games at SW19 this year near the end of the second set.
But that was virtually the only blip for the 33-year-old as he won 6-3 7-5 6-2 in one hour and 34 minutes.
The second seed plays either Britain's Andy Murray or Canada's Vasek Pospisil on Friday for a place in the final.
Federer has had some marathon battles with Simon in the past but this time only the weather looked like holding him up on Court One.
On two occasions the players had to come off for 30-minute breaks because of showers, but the interruptions did not affect Federer's focus.
He also remained unruffled even after Simon ended his run of 116 consecutive unbroken service games, which started in the first round of the Gerry Weber Open in Halle last month.
Federer broke back immediately as he went on to take the second set, and took Simon's serve apart in the third to take his place in the last four."The stop and goes with the weather are tough but I think I used them to my advantage," Federer said afterwards. "The breaks helped rather than hindered me.
"Simon was a quality return player and the game I got broken he was too good."
"The bottom line is that Roger Federer did not allow Gilles Simon to play his game. He did not let Simon get any rhythm and he also put pressure on his service game. On top of that, Federer has been immaculate on his serve. Apart from that one break, Simon never looked like getting anything in the rallies."
-John Lloyd, former British number one
