Crowd favorite Federer nets victory to end Manic Monday
WIMBLEDON, England — Excitement and adoration greeted every point claimed by Roger Federer — “aaahs” and applause for a sliced backhand return or a 94 mph sliding wide ace, an unreachable drop volley or a forehand flicked suddenly and ferociously.
It all got to be too much for his opponent at the All England Club, No. 23 seed Lorenzo Sonego. So in the latter stages of his 7-5, 6-4, 6-2 loss to the eight-time champion, Sonego would win a point and mark the occasion by waving his arms to ask the crowd for some love, as if to say, “Hey, I'm here, too, OK?”
The match was the last at Centre Court on what was Wimbledon's last Manic Monday: As of next year, no longer will all 16 women's and men's fourth-round singles matches be scheduled on one day, a tradition vanishing along with that of a Middle Sunday without any play. And yet, amid all the chaos of a packed schedule, one could be forgiven for imagining Federer held the stage to himself.
He's coming off a pair of knee operations last season and he's participating in a Grand Slam tournament for the last time before turning 40. So who knows how many of these he has left? Even Federer himself didn't really know what he would be able to muster this fortnight.
“Well, I mean, I guess to some extent it's nice to see that the work I put in paid off, that I'm able to play at this level,” said Federer, who only had played eight matches in 2021 before last week.
“I can actually wake up in the morning and feel all right. ... It's very rewarding and it's a good feeling,” he said. “Now we'll see how much more I got left in the tank.”
The raucous support he received created a more vibrant atmosphere than at other contests spread around the grounds, whether involving victories for past title winners Novak Djokovic and Angelique Kerber — she ended 17-year-old American Coco Gauff's run — or for one of the 11 players who earned a debut trip to the quarterfinals at the grass-court major.
“We'll look back in 20 years, 50 years, from now and this is it,” Federer said. “This was the last Middle Sunday, the last Manic Monday.”
The main stadium's retractable roof was shut when rain arrived late in the first set, a delay of more than 20 minutes that, not incidentally, was followed by an immediate double-fault by Sonego on break point to fall behind 6-5.
That was the only opening Federer really needed as he moved into his record-extending 18th quarterfinal at Wimbledon. At 39, with his milestone birthday arriving Aug. 8, Federer is the oldest Wimbledon quarterfinalist in the Open era, which began in 1968.
