London: Third seed Venus Williams booked her place in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon on Monday after Serbian 13th seed Ana Ivanovic retired injured in their fourth-round clash.
Venus, chasing her third straight title here and sixth overall, was making a mockery of Ivanovic's former world No. 1 ranking by storming to the first set 6-1 when the Serb called for the trainer in the opening game of the second.
Former French Open champion Ivanovic received treatment to her hip and then held her serve to go 1-0 up in the second before tearfully informing the umpire she could not carry on.
Venus will play Polish 11th seed Agnieszka Radwanska for a place in the semi-finals.
Federer sees off Soderling challenge
Meanwhile, second seed Roger Federer continued to scythe through the men's draw with a 6-4, 7-6, 7-6 fourth-round victory over Sweden's Robin Soderling on Monday.
Federer beat Soderling in the French Open final earlier this month and the Swede had been expected to give the five-time champion his first test of the fortnight, but the Swiss maestro never looked flustered as he booked his quarter-final berth.
Federer took the opening set 6-4 courtesy of the only break of the match and wrapped up the second 7-5 in the tiebreak. He won the third, again 7-5 in the breaker, when the Swede guided a backhand return wide.
Federer will play Spanish seventh seed Fernando Verdasco or Ivo Karlovic, the Croatian 22nd seed, for a place in the semi-finals.
Germany's Tommy Haas, too, reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon for the first time in his career on Monday when he demolished Russian Igor Andreev 7-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Haas, at 31 and two months the oldest player remaining in the men's draw, showed superb timing off both wings to produce his best showing at the All England Club since his debut in 1997.
The former world No. 2 took a tight opener 10-8 on the tiebreak and after that solved the problem of the 29th seed's booming forehand to wrap up the second just 41 minutes later.
A single break was enough in the third and the end came when Andreev netted a forehand. He will play Israel's Dudi Sela or fourth seed Novak Djokovic from Serbia for a place in the semi-finals.
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