The sign held up by a member of the Centre Court crowd stated flatly: “Federer Is Forever.” But the lady proffering it was a tad diffident, as if acknowledging that the great man is not the player of yesteryear. She needn’t have worried.
Her idol fought past his third round opponent Cameron Norrie 6-4, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. It wasn’t easy, but he proved that reports of his own death have been greatly exaggerated.
One month shy of his 40th birthday, Roger Federer is alive, kicking, and into the second week at Wimbledon for the 18th occasion in his astonishing career. Anyone would think the eight-time champion knows what he’s doing.
“I’m very, very pleased and super-relieved – that was a tough battle,” said Federer. “He deserved that third set. He played excellent. I felt I was able to keep a high level of play and can be very happy with how I played.
"It’s nice to hear it will be my 69th Grand Slam fourth round. I’ve loved every minute and I hope there’s a little bit more left in me. It’s an absolute pleasure still playing right now, and this is special as it’s my last Slam before I hit the big 40. It’s all a bonus, and we’ll see how far it can go.”
The longer this third round match went on, the more resourceful Norrie became. Just as well, then, that all the movement and timing which were so grimly absent from Federer’s first round display against Adrian Mannarino were back in abundance here. No need this time to rely on the slings, arrows and slippery grass of outrageous fortune to seal his passage into the next round.
So the Swiss-British axis remains unchanged. No British man has beaten Federer at a Grand Slam since Andy Murray saw him off at the Australian Open eight years ago.
As for a domestic win over the great man on the lawns of SW19 – for that, we must peer back through the mists of time to 2001, when Tim Henman managed the feat two years before Federer lifted the gentlemen’s trophy for the first time.
Still, left-handed gun Norrie has made great strides this year, reaching three finals including Queen’s. This is the third successive Grand Slam where the 25-year-old has reached the third round, thus justifying his first-time seeding of No.29.
But the fates have dictated a duff draw in the last 32 for him each time – he met Nadal in both Australia and at Roland-Garros, and here at Wimbledon… well, you know the rest. Moreover, for all those big strides this year, he has yet to defeat a top ten player in any Grand Slam. If Norrie is to reach the last 16 of a Slam for the first time, he will need to get himself into the big matches earlier than he did here.
Having walked on to the Centre Court with a confident wave, his opening service game featured three double faults, and he held it only when Federer obliged with mistakes of his own. But Norrie’s first serve had gone walkabout, and at 3-3 he put too much mustard on a forehand to offer Federer a whole trio of break points.
The No.6 seed duly gobbled up the first in the middle of a 12-point streak. The Federer who could barely manage to win 50 per cent of his first serves against Mannarino was now banking dangerously near a full house.
It was only at the start of the second set that Norrie was able to exert pressure on that Federer serve for the first time. But the Swiss swatted away two break points with the stonewall style of yesteryear, and shortly afterwards it was Norrie who was behind once more, making mistakes which seemed to bemuse even him.
He stayed in touch, but could do no more. Even in his best moments in the third set, it felt like he was hanging on. So it came like a thunderbolt from nowhere when he broke to love at the death, to take the match into a fourth set.
The rallies were longer now, testing the 15 years Federer was giving his opponent, and exposing his lack of matches since the start of 2020. But there was none of the negative attitude (his own description) which crowded his mindset during his shock last 16 defeat to Felix Auger-Aliassime last month on the grass of Halle, where the Swiss had previously amassed ten trophies. Norrie was like sticky tape on Federer’s fingers, coming back from a break down and saving more break points thereafter. But the Swiss broke again, and this time it was fatal
So Federer goes through. A place in the last eight hinges on his fourth round meeting with the No.23 seed Lorenzo Sonego, runner-up at Eastbourne last month, whom Federer beat in their only previous encounter, on clay.
Wimbledon’s favourite son has at least one more chapter in him this Fortnight. Gather round, children, and listen closely as the tale unfolds. There’s life in the old legend yet.
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