Favorites Don’t Miss Beat

Roger Federer is perfect for stately Wimbledon. His shirt is neatly pressed; his shorts are crisp and tidy. His hair is long but always pulled back in a tight ponytail without a stray hanging loose.

When he plays, the tennis is noiseless. He moves so lightly across the grass it seems as if the blades aren’t being touched. Federer does not seem ruthless. He is a gentle man in his speech and with words. But in his first three rounds at Wimbledon, Federer has not lost a set, has not lost his serve, and has barely spent enough time on the court to have a good meal with a glass of wine and dessert. He gives his opponents no room to breath, then greets them with a hug.

Sunday, which is supposed to be Wimbledon’s rest day, Federer politely dismissed Thomas Johansson of Sweden, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3, in 1 hour 38 minutes. Johansson smiled at the end and accepted Federer’s hug, and maybe Johansson was proud of himself. This was Federer’s longest match so far. In three victories, the defending champion has spent a total of 3:54 on the court.

For only the third time in 127 years, play had been scheduled on Wimbledon’s middle Sunday after two entire days of the two-week tournament were rained out last week and only one day was completed with no rain delays. Sunday wasn’t one of them. Two women’s singles matches were left unfinished when torrential rain hit.

But that was later.

At 11 a.m. here, two hours earlier than the usual start on Centre Court, Federer, the 22-year-old from Switzerland, was so efficient that several thousand fans hadn’t made it through the gates by the time his match was finished.

That was fine with most of them, who were mainly interested in packing Centre Court to cheer on British favorite Tim Henman. They had to swallow hard when fifth-seeded Henman lost the third set and fell behind Morocco’s Hicham Arazi, 2-0, in the fourth. But with Union Jacks waving and the crowd cheering “Go, Tim,” Henman recovered to win the final six games and the third-round match, 7-6 (6), 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.

Also moving into the fourth round, joining 27th-seeded Robby Ginepri, were two more Americans. Second-seeded Andy Roddick, who beat Taylor Dent, 6-3, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (1), and 30th-seeded Vince Spadea, a 29-year-old from Boca Raton, Fla., who advanced further than he ever has at Wimbledon with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 upset of eighth-seeded Rainer Schuettler of Germany.

Grim-faced Serena Williams, who clenched her fist and slapped her thigh after several points, powered past unseeded Magui Serna of Spain, 6-4, 6-0. Williams had 11 aces and only 11 unforced errors in her best-played match of the tournament.

Karolina Sprem, who upset Venus Williams last week, knocked out another American, 32nd-seeded Meghan Shaughnessy, with a 7-6 (5), 7-6 (2) victory. Seventh-seeded Jennifer Capriati, who will play Serena Williams in the quarterfinals if she gets past 10th-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia in her next round, easily dismissed 25th-seeded Nathalie Dechy of France, 7-5, 6-1.

Federer has been compared to Wimbledon’s last great champion, Pete Sampras, since Federer won his first Grand Slam title here last year. Comparisons are tricky. Goran Ivanisevic said Sampras had the best serve but maybe Federer has more game.

“Some things Roger does better than Pete,” Ivanisevic said. “On the court he’s like a magician. Pete was destroying. Pete was serving. When you played Pete, you couldn’t touch his serve. But Federer, the way he plays, he’s back, he comes in. When you look at him you think tennis is a very easy sport, but it’s not.”

Numbers aren’t so tricky. Federer has won 20 consecutive grass-court matches, the longest streak since Sampras won 23 consecutive beginning at the 1998 Wimbledon. Federer has held serve in 112 of his last 114 games on grass and 68 consecutive here.

Sunday, he hit 44 winners, had only 12 unforced errors and was hypnotic in the way he handled his racket at the net.

Federer may be becoming like Sampras as far as his dominance on grass, but the Swiss star’s game is more complicated because it has to be.

“I would like to break that 130-, 135-mile-per- hour barrier, but I cannot,” Federer said about his serve. “So I have to do it a little differently. I need to play well from the baseline. I have to serve consistently. That’s exactly what I did today.”

The opponent Federer defeated is no slouch. Johansson won the Australian Open two years ago.

“Against Roger,” Johansson said, “for me there are no openings. I believe right now that he is on a separate level from others.”

If Federer is beautiful silence on a tennis court, Roddick is raucous noise.

Roddick’s shirt is always wrinkled, his baseball caps are stained by sweat. There is no finesse in his game. Why hit a serve 130 mph if you can hit it 150? Why glide to the net and use the feel in your fingers, the snap of your wrist to hit a well-crafted volley if you can wind up and whack a forehand that kicks up dust on the court?

Roddick hasn’t lost a set here this year either. While Federer has seldom been seen in ads or magazines, Roddick has been on a television game show and is starring as a character in a local comic book.

Roddick speaks in boldfaced words. He fidgets in his chair. He taps his feet, twists his fingers and describes shots, games, himself in the language of slang.

He hit a “little slimy return” against Dent. This rainy week has been “whacky.” Roddick is also open and honest and seems to understand his progress.

“I’m not a finished article in any way, shape or form right now,” he said. “I have a lot of work to do. If I was sitting here extremely content with myself at 21, then I’d have to question myself.”

Next up for Federer is a big-serving Croatian, Ivo Karlovic. Next up for Roddick is a 27-year-old journeyman German, Alexander Popp. Neither Federer nor Roddick profess to be paying attention to the progress of the other. They say they will wait to see if they meet in the finals.