Roger Federer possesses the coolest head at Wimbledon and dismissed the baking temperatures at the All England Club as ‘very comfortable’ as he breezed into the quarter-finals.
The defending champion and top seed barely broke sweat in 80-degree heat on Centre Court as he dismissed Jurgen Melzer 6-3 6-2 6-3 to book a last-eight date with 12th seed Tomas Berdych.
The spell of glorious weather that was such a welcome feature of the first week of the Championships extended to today as play resumed following the traditional middle Sunday rest day.
And Federer looked in good touch as he raced to victory in just one hour and 24 minutes against an opponent who looked out of his depth on his first appearance in the last 16 at SW19.
The six-time champion is sure to be tested to a greater extent as the tournament wears on, and should the weather remain unchanged that is sure to involve one or two gruelling afternoons of toil in searing heat.
But the 28-year-old dismissed talk of the warm spell being any sort of an issue for players at this level.
‘This is not hot. This is normal to me anyway,’ he said.
‘Maybe for England [it is hot], for Switzerland as well. But we're used to playing in 35, 40 degrees sometimes.
‘This is moderate. Very comfortable to play in. This is a one-shirt-change kind of match. That's rather easy.’
A change of shirt in today’s match would hardly have been necessary, with Federer rarely moving out of first gear as he secured a 25th consecutive grand slam quarter-final appearance.
Federer wobbled briefly when conceding a break in the opening set but otherwise was always in control against a player he came through the ranks with over a decade ago but was today meeting for the first time on the men's tour.
‘I thought I played great,’ Federer continued. ‘Aggressive right from the start, which I think was key today.
‘Every chance he was going to get, he was going to hit the ball and come forward as well. You want to counter that and play aggressive yourself. I was able to do that very well today.’
After being taken to five sets by Alejandro Falla in the first round and prevailing in four against Ilija Bozoljac in the second, Federer has now recharged his batteries with two routine wins.
His victory over Arnaud Clement in the third round was as straightforward as his demolition of his good friend Melzer today, and the Swiss is feeling refreshed and ready for the rest of the tournament.
He said: ‘It was great to have two days off - coming in as defending champion has a slight advantage, you know you're always going to start on Monday, then [play] Wednesday and Friday if you keep on winning so you have a longer weekend off.’
Nerves hampered Melzer during the early exchanges, which was perhaps understandable with the Austrian contesting the fourth round here for the first time.
In an encounter that pitted two junior Wimbledon champions of the late 1990s against each other, it was Federer who assumed control with a break of the Melzer serve at the first time of asking.
But the 16th seed settled to hold his next service game before breaking back with a cute lob.
Melzer failed to build from that point, however, with Federer breaking straight back to seize the initiative.
Melzer, who was bidding to become the first Austrian to reach the last eight at Wimbledon, gave his confidence a boost at the start of the second set as he held to love.
But frailties returned in the left-hander's next service game as Federer again unlocked his opponent before sealing a second break on his way to a 2-0 lead.
Two further breaks in the third completed a crushing win for Federer, who nevertheless believes both men would welcome the chance to renew rivalries sooner rather than later.
‘[Melzer] even said right after the match was over he hopes he doesn't have to wait another 10 years to play me,’ Federer said.
‘He was hoping for a second match right after the match was over.’
