Roger Federer actually had his serve broken for the first time at Wimbledon 2015, but it did nothing to stop the Swiss ace from marching into the semifinals at the expense of Gilles Simon, who was left shattered and bamboozled by the great man on the No.1 Court.
With Andy Murray playing on Centre Court – and doing pretty well as well – the spotlight wasn't as firmly placed on Federer as usual, but the play was as good as ever, with the seven-time Wimbledon champion giving Simon the run-around from point one to complete a comfortable 6-3, 7-5, 6-2 victory.
Next up is a certain Murray, who was in his elements as well – perhaps not as dominant as Federer, but good enough – picking up a straight-set 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 win over Vasek Pospisil.
From the very first game it was clear this would be a Federer cruise – despite two rain breaks, both of around a half-an-hour each, Simon could not find a way to quell the 17-time Grand Slam champion's momentum -- with the great man breaking Simon in the Frenchman's first service game and never looking back from there.
Try as he might, Simon just could not stay with the poise and panache of his opponent, and Federer eased to a one-set lead.
It looked like being an easy peasy second set as well, with another break giving Federer a chance to serve out the second set at 5-4. But then came the only real moment of excitement –in terms of competition of course – in the match as Simon raced to a 0-40 lead, before getting a break off the first point to level the set back at 5-5.
It was the first time that Federer had been broken all tournament, with the No.2 seed only facing two break points coming into this quarterfinal.
However, that break only spurred Federer, who had 36 winners in all, to step up another gear, and step up he did, breaking back immediately, before serving out – after the second rain break -- the set to take a 2-0 lead.
By now, Simon was demoralised and you could feel the third set would go only one way, especially after Federer broke the No.12 seed's serve in the first game.
It was as comfortable as they come from there for the legend, with this performance sending out another message to Murray ahead of what should be some clash.
Murray, with the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton, Prince William and David Beckham (hey, he's close to royalty!) in attendance, was pretty impressive as well, quelling the Pospisil surge every time the Canadian looked like gaining some momentum, and just constantly finding the right shot at the right time, winning the right point at the right time.
That is what separates great players from the ones just a rung below, and Murray showed better nous in this match, something that Pospisil will learn with more quarterfinal appearances in Grand Slams.
While Murray was good enough to comfortably beat Pospisil in the end, you feel the Brit will need to step it up a few more gears to stop Federer, who looks in the here-comes-the-eighth-Wimbledon-title mood.
