Roger Federer is through the first week at the 2017 Wimbledon Championships and will face Grigor Dimitrov (11 ATP) for a place in the quarterfinals stages. The Swiss tennis star who recently resumed playing after skipping the entire clay court swing is gathering momentum on the grass court. Winning in Halle a while ago went down as the proper incentive for Federer. The fourth round session brings all the Big Four members together. A seventh time titlist of the third Grand Slam of the season, Roger Federer has quite a draw as his part of the board includes some possible grueling encounters next.
Bulgaria's no. 1 Dimitrov, is just the beginning. Ranked 11th in the world, Grigor is seeking his first ever success against Roger Federer.
Can Grigor Dimitrov outpace Roger Federer?
Watching the way Dimitrov is playing tennis, it won't take long to notice that he is a vivid copy of Roger Federer's approach to the game. Perhaps that's why the amount of success against the Swiss has been so little for the Bulgarian. Having a solid start of the season on the hardcourt, he reached the semis at the Australian Open where he narrowly lost to Rafael Nadal in a 5 set thriller. The clay season forced him to take a few steps back but the ongoing grass session is putting him on the radar again. In a head to head, Roger Federer leads Dimitrov by 5-0 although all their previous clashes took place on a hardcourt.
Their first grass-court encounter is an intriguing and well worth watching match-up.
Federer and another hard draw to deal with
Sailing throughout the previous three rounds, both players made no wrong steps as they both reached this phase of the contest without dropping a set. In order to have a shot to defeat Federer, Dimitrov must come with some something new.
If Federer gets past the Bulgarian, the quarterfinals will produce another interesting match-up with Alexander Zverev and Milos Raonic fighting at the other end. Once again, Federer is experiencing a nightmare draw. Initially, that quarter of the draw included four of the top 15 players (Federer, Raonic, Zverev, Dimitrov) and other two big servers (John Isner and Jack Sock) who went out early in the contest.
Roger Federer will have to fight hard from the opening stages in his quest to reach the 19th Grand Slam limit.
Let's say Federer does get past any impediment and books himself a spot in the semis. There, Novak Djokovic is most likely to emerge as the Serb is having some good moments on grass. The title in Eastbourne settled things down and now he seems to have regained his inner balance on the tennis court. The final act may put Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal on opposite ends of the court.
