LONDON – Roger Federer kept tennis statisticians on their toes on Saturday as he mopped up a few more records by trampling all over Lucas Pouille's dreams in a rip-roaring 7-5 6-2 7-6(4) win to reach the fourth round of Wimbledon.
The Swiss became the first player – man or woman – to notch up 350 match wins at the majors.
But as the father of two sets of twins, Federer seems to have a penchant for doing things in pairs and Saturday was no different as he also set a professional era record of reaching the last 16 for the 17th time – surpassing the previous benchmark he had shared with Jimmy Connors.
But the Swiss is unlikely to be popping champagne corks to celebrate either milestone as he has his eyes firmly set on a much, much bigger prizes – a record ninth Challenge Cup and a 21st Grand Slam title.
To get closer to that, however, he will first have to negotiate his way past Italian 17th seed Matteo Berrettini.
This GOAT just became the first player to record 350 Grand Slam singles match wins. Absolutely outstanding! #Wimbledon #champion pic.twitter.com/SULqnamw24
— Billie Jean King (@BillieJeanKing) July 6, 2019
Australian Open semi-finalist Pouille was cheered on by his coach Amelie Mauresmo as he played his part in an entertaining match that was more keenly contested than the score suggests but he bowed out after netting a backhand on Federer's third match point.