Federer gets bye into quarter-finals

Tennis:  Roger Federer has been handed a bye to the quarter-finals of Wimbledon after his fourth-round opponent Tommy Haas was…

Tennis: Roger Federer has been handed a bye to the quarter-finals of Wimbledon after his fourth-round opponent Tommy Haas was forced to pull out through injury.

Haas, the 13th seed, suffered a stomach injury in a previous match at the All England Club.

Federer will play the winner of the match between Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero and Serb Janko Tipsarevic in the last eight as he bids for a fifth straight Wimbledon title, equalling the modern-day record of Bjorn Borg.

Haas said he suffered a torn abdominal muscle in his four-set victory over Russian Dmitry Tursunov in the third round.

READ MORE

"I felt it in my previous match," he said. "I'm just going to go home now and get this thing under control. I will follow the rest of the tournament on TV.

"I wish I could have been on Centre Court but it's not to be.  The way I was playing I think I'm one of the guys who could have been dangerous for Roger. It would have been a nice opportunity."

Ironically, this was Haas' first tournament since retiring in the opening round of the Masters Series event in Rome in May with a shoulder injury.

The 29-year-old has been plagued by injury problems, missing Wimbledon in 2002 and the whole of 2003 with shoulder injuries.