Stroll for Federer; Hingis out

Top seed Roger Federer sauntered into the last 16 of Wimbledon on Friday with a regulation 6-3, 7-6, 6-4 victory over Frenchman Nicolas Mahut.

Top seed Roger Federer sauntered into the last 16 of Wimbledon on Friday with a regulation 6-3, 7-6, 6-4 victory over Frenchman Nicolas Mahut. His 44th consecutive grass court victory was never really in doubt and he spent most of the match in cruise control.

The latest exhibition of Federer8217;s extraordinary talent will not live long in the memory. A muted Court One crowd sensed the inevitability of the outcome once Federer had sealed the opening set with a solitary break of serve.

8220;I expected a big serve, but I didn8217;t expect that big a second serve,8221; Federer told reporters. 8220;That was really what was difficult for me. There were many points that were over in no time, and you don8217;t really get a momentum going. Obviously the crowd, they8217;re waiting for something to happen. I was pretty relaxed all the way through and it was important not to get frustrated against a player like that.8221;

Federer dealt comfortably with one break point at 3-4 in the second set before accelerating away in the tiebreak which he took 7-2. His only blemish came at 5-3 in the third set when he sloppily lost his serve but the champion immediately broke back with a volley of passing shots to end the contest just past the two-hour mark.

The Swiss champion will play either Germany8217;s Tommy Haas or Czech Tomas Berdych for a place in the quarter-finals.

In the women8217;s singles Martina Hingis8217;s Wimbledon comeback stalled in the third round on Friday when she was outclassed by Japan8217;s Ai Sugiyama 7-5, 3-6, 6-4.

The Swiss 12th seed had lost just seven games coming into the third round match. Sugiyama proved to be a more stubborn opponent and she stormed back from 3-0 down in the decider to clinch victory in one hour and 44 minutes after the 1997 champion8217;s backhand floated just wide.

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She will next meet French qualifier Severine Bremond for a place in the quarter-finals.

Other important results

Women8217;s singles: Round 3: 15-Daniela Hantuchova SVK bt 21-Katarina Srebotnik SLO 6-4, 7-62; 27-Na Li CHN bt 5-Svetlana Kuznetsova RUS 3-6, 6-2, 6-3; 3-Justine Henin-Hardenne BEL bt 30-Anna Chakvetadze RUS 6-2, 6-3; Kim Clijsters BEL bt Jie Zheng CHN 6-3, 6-2.

Men8217;s singles: Round 3: 28-Fernando Verdasco ESP bt 4-David Nalbandian ARG 7-69, 7-69, 6-2; Max Mirnyi BLR bt 8-James Blake USA 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-0. Round 2: 6-Lleyton Hewitt AUS bt Hyung-Taik Lee KOR 6-74, 6-2, 7-66, 6-75, 6-4.