Soderling in search of miracle

And Soderling is not holding out much hope that the result will be any different than at Roland Garros, where Federer won in straight sets to claim a record-equalling 14th grand slam title.

Asked if he had any reason to think he could get closer to the five-time Wimbledon champion on grass, Soderling joked: "No!"

The 24-year-old Swede, who has lost all 10 of his matches with Federer, added: "I can play well on every surface and he has definitely showed that he can play very well on all surfaces.

"It's tough to play against Roger. I've played him 10 times and after the match I never felt like I played well. It's not because of me, I think it's because of him. He makes you play. It's tough to play well against him, put it that way. I'd like to improve everything from Paris."

Federer surprisingly dropped his first set of the championships but responded in style to beat Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3 6-2 6-7 6-1.

Elsewhere, Ivo Karlovic won an unsurprisingly serve-dominated clash with ninth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the 6ft 10in Croatian winning 7-6 6-7 7-5 7-6 on Court One.

Karlovic will be the underdog again in the fourth round when he faces seventh seed Fernando Verdasco, another big server.

Fourth seed Novak Djokovic beat Mardy Fish 6-4 6-4 6-4. Only a momentary lapse in the second set threatened to knock the Serbian off course, but he quickly recovered to set up a clash with Dudi Sela of Israel in the last 16.

Finally, Marin Cilic and Tommy Haas were producing one of Wimbledon's classic encounters before bad light brought an end to a five-set thriller on Number One Court. The packed crowd were treated to an epic four-hour contest that swung one way and then the other before play was halted with the scores level at 6-6 in the deciding set.