DREAM FINAL LOOMS

DEFENDING champion Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal closed in on a dream Wimbledon final as the sport’s two greatest players swept into the last eight.

Eight-time champion Federer needed just 16 minutes to win the opening set on his way to a 6-0, 7-5, 6-4 defeat of France’s Adrian Mannarino to reach his 16th All England Club quarter-final.

World No.1 Nadal, the twotime champion, reached his first quarter-final at Wimbledon since 2011 – when he went on to finish runner-up – with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 win over Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic.

Federer will be playing in his 53rd Grand Slam last-eight when he tackles Kevin Anderson, the eighth-seeded South African. Top seed Federer, 36, has now won 32 consecutive sets at Wimbledon, just two behind his record set from the third round in 2005 to his title triumph in 2006.

He has also held serve for 81 successive games at the tournament, a run stretching back to the first set of his semi-final win against Tomas Berdych in 2017.

“It was crucial for him to stay in the match at the beginning of the second set and then it got tougher,” said 20-time major winner Federer.

“You always tend to play better against better players and I’m happy to be back in the second week of Wimbledon.”

Federer boasts a 4-0 career record against 2017 US Open runner-up Anderson, who reached the quarter-finals for the first time with a 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/2), 5-7, 7-6 (7/4) win over France’s Gael Monfils.

Anderson is the first South African man in the Wimbledon last-eight since Wayne Ferreira in 1994.

Nadal, like Federer yet to drop a set, routed world number 93 Vesely on the eve of the Czech player’s 25th birthday.

Monday’s win took Nadal, 32, into a 35th Grand Slam quarter-final. “It was an important victory as since 2011 I have not been in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon.

So it’s an important moment,” said Nadal, the 17-time Grand Slam champion who has made four successive quarterfinals at the majors for the first time in six years.

Nadal’s next opponent was to be decided last night – Juan Martin del Potro, the fifth seeded Argentine, or unseeded Gilles Simon of France.

Del Potro was leading 7-6 (7/1), 7-6 (7/5), 5-7 when his tie with Simon was halted due to darkness.

Novak Djokovic reached the quarter-finals for the 10th time with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 win over Russia’s Karen Khachanov. Three-time champion Djokovic, seeded 12, will next face Japan’s 24th seed Kei Nishikori who beat Australian Nick Kyrgios in straight sets.

It will be Djokovic’s 41st appearance in a Grand Slam quarter-final.

YOU ALWAYS TEND TO PLAY BETTER AGAINST BETTER PLAYERS AND I’M HAPPY TO BE BACK IN THE SECOND WEEK OF WIMBLEDON ROGER FEDERER