WIMBLEDON - Roger Federer's path to a record 15th grand slam title will look reassuringly familiar provided he can tame the Rainmaker in Wednesday's quarter-finals.
Ivo Karlovic, 2.08m tall and the son of a meteorologist, has been raining down aces throughout this tournament, 137 of them in four matches.
Still, the 30-year-old Croat will hold few fears for second seed Federer, who has won eight of their nine matches to date, including two this season and one at Wimbledon back in 2004.
It will be a huge surprise if Federer is not facing Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals as the 22-year-old Serb faces 31-year-old German Tommy Haas in a clash of two generations.
In the other half of the draw, Andy Murray will expect to deal wildcard Juan Carlos Ferrero out of the hand, while the patched-up Lleyton Hewitt will throw everything his body has left at his old rival Andy Roddick.
Meanwhile, Sobriety returned to Wimbledon on Tuesday after the heady brew of the night before with Centre Court open to the sunny skies and the insatiable Williams sisters blasting through to the semi-finals.
British hope Andy Murray's intoxicating five-set defeat of Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka on Monday, a thrilling match which ended way after sunset under Centre Court's gleaming roof and blazing lights, raised excitement levels far beyond the reach of women's quarter-final day.
Murray's four-hour epic was played out in an adrenaline-fuelled Davis Cup style atmosphere but polite applause was the order of the day as first champion Venus Williams, 29, romped to a 6-1 6-2 defeat of Pole Agnieszka Radwanska and then Serena powered past Victoria Azarenka of Belarus 6-2 6-3.
Neither have dropped a set in the tournament so far -- they even won a women's doubles 6-0 6-0 on Monday -- as they career headlong towards a seemingly inevitable fourth meeting in a Wimbledon final on Saturday. (Reuters)