While hardly any tennis pundits doubted that Roger Federer would find his way to the quarter-final of his favourite Grand Slam tournament, few expected that the player standing opposite him across the net would be France’s Gilles Simon. However, now that the final eight has been set, the two will now meet for an eighth time on the professional tour to determine who will advance to the semi-final stage of the Wimbledon Championships. Federer leads the head-to-head series 5-2.

The tournament’s second seed had little trouble dispatching Roberto Bautista Agut straight sets to advance to the quarter-final round of the Championships. Federer secured the 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 win in one hour and 26 minutes to reach his 13th quarter-final at SW19.

“It was a good match,” said Federer. “I got off to a good start and kept rolling. Maybe Roberto wasn’t at his very best. Midway through the second [set], he hurt himself. Still, he was out there and he was actually still moving okay, so I had to put him away, which I was able to do.”

Federer will come up against Gilles Simon, who produced one of his best matches in recent memory to dominate Tomas Berdych en route to the final eight at Wimbledon. He struck 21 winners and saved the one break point he faced to beat the Czech in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2.

“I had a good feeling from the start,” said Simon. “I felt he was struggling also to put his game in place, and I was really good at keeping him in the gray area. I felt he didn’t know what to do anymore on the court, and for me, it was really clear. So I was just so happy that it lasted [through] all the match.”

With Federer’s impressive week as the only dominant player left in the draw is still fresh in our minds, it is hard to imagine any competitor on the tour who would be able to stop his ascent the semi-final round. Even Simon, who has played some impressive tennis all week and quite deserves his position, will likely be unable to find an answer to the world No. 2’s offense.