Federer outclasses Raonic to reach semi-finals

LONDON — Roger Federer turned his 100th Wimbledon match into an exhibition as he outclassed Milos Raonic 6-4 6-2 7-6(4) on Wednesday to reach the semi-finals for a record 12th time.

The Swiss, who turns 36 next month, played his best tennis of the tournament to dismantle the big-serving Canadian who knocked him out at the semi-final stage last year.

Seven-times champion Federer hit two rasping backhand winners and a forehand that had Raonic ducking for cover to break serve in the fifth game.

Sixth seed Raonic's belief ebbed away at the start of the second set when he offered up another break with a careless forehand and Federer went for the jugular with a further break of the Canadian's delivery as he established a two-set lead.

Federer was made to sweat a little in the third set and had to save four break points at 3-4 as Raonic finally began to hit his groundstrokes with more menace.

Raonic went 3-0 ahead in the tiebreak too but 18-times major champion Federer responded with two majestic forehand passes as he regained control with five points in a row.

An 11th ace brought up a match point and Federer clinched victory when Raonic shunted a backhand wide.

Federer has yet to drop a set in the tournament this year and with defending champion Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal all out he is a huge favourite to become the first man to win the Wimbledon title eight times.

He will play Czech Tomas Berdych, the 11th seed, in the last four.

Djokovic out of Wimbledon 

Three-times Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic's painful year continued as he retired with an elbow injury during his quarter-final against Czech Tomas Berdych on Wednesday.

The second seed had lost the opening set and was down a break in the second when he walked to the net and shook his opponent's hand.

The retirement, with the score at 7-6(2) 2-0, came shortly after the 30-year-old Serb called a medical timeout. 

Djokovic said his right elbow had been bothering him for over a year and a half and that he had been feeling pain from the beginning of the tournament.

"The intensity and the level of pain was not decreasing. It was only increasing as the days went by," he said. "Unfortunately, today was the worst day. 

"It's unfortunate that I had to finish Wimbledon, a grand slam, this way," he added. "I mean, if someone feels bad about it, it's me. But, you know, I tried."

He also said the postponement of his last-16 match against Adrian Mannarino, which was pushed a day to Tuesday because of the marathon five-setter in which Gilles Muller beat Rafael Nadal, might have played a role.

"Probably the fact that I played yesterday, kind of days adding up, as I've said before, it wasn't helping at all," he said.

The retirement is another blow for the former world number one, who has surrendered his Australian and French Open titles this year and slipped to fourth in the world.

The result means Berdych, 31, has reached the semi-finals for the second year running. The Czech has also broken a streak of 12 losses against his tormentor-in-chief Djokovic, whom he had previously only beaten twice in 27 matches.