Federer advances to quarterfinals at Wimbledon

Switzerland's Roger Federer has trumped Australia's Lleyton Hewitt to reach the last eight of the Wimbledon tennis tournament in London.

The world number one and five-times champion beat Hewitt 7-6, 6-2, 6-4 on Monday and will next face Croatia’s Mario Ancic.

Once Federer clinched the tiebreak 9-7 with an ace, he ran Hewitt – the last man to win the Wimbledon title in 2002 before the Swiss took charge at the tournament – ragged.

“That first set tiebreaker really put me on the winning streak and after that I played consistently well,” said the world number one after the match.

It was Federer’s 63rd consecutive win on grass. The Swiss star, who served 21 aces, has now beaten his Australian rival 12 times in a row.

Federer now faces world number 43 Ancic, who won a draining 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 13-11 epic against Fernando Verdasco.

The other Swiss contender at Wimbledon is down and out for the count. The 13th seed Stanislas Wawrinka was beaten in four sets (6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 6-1) by former world number one, Marat Safin.

The Russian had already signalled his intentions, defeating the Serbian third seed Novak Djokovic last week.