London Six-time champion Roger Federer reached the Wimbledon third round on Wednesday with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 win over Italy’s Fabio Fognini, a regal performance witnessed by Britain’s Prince Charles.
The third-seeded Swiss took just 74 minutes to defeat Fognini, who received a quick lesson in bowing from Federer before they walked onto Centre Court where Charles, on a first visit to the All England Club in more than 40 years, was watching with his wife Camilla.
Federer, chasing Pete Sampras’ record of seven Wimbledon titles, fired 13 aces and 35 winners in his rapid victory and has lost just nine games in his first two rounds.
“I’m very happy to have won and to be back on Centre Court. It’s great to have that feeling and to see Charles and Camilla up there is just great for tennis,” said Federer.
“We were told beforehand that they were coming and we were asked to bow. We said no problem.”
Federer, who has lost in the quarter-finals here for the last two years, next faces either France’s Julien Benneteau or Michael Russell of the United States for a place in the last 16.
He said he felt no ill-effects from falling to the ground in the third set whe he lost his footing, adding he was happy with his form.
“I’m serving well, my forehand and backhand are working well and it’s great to win so comfortably.”
US Open champion Samantha Stosur suffered another Wimbledon nightmare as the fifth seed crashed out in the second round, meaning there are no Australians left in either the men’s or women’s singles.
Stosur, 28, had never been past the third round in nine previous visits to the All England Club and that miserable sequence was extended with a 6-2, 0-6, 6-4 defeat against Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands.
Stosur lost her rhythm in the final set on Court One and allowed the world No 72 to take advantage.
Also going out was Slovak 13th seed Dominika Cibulkova, a 6-4, 6-1 loser to Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic.
German 15th seed Sabine Lisicki went through with a 3-6, 6-2, 8-6 win over Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski.
