--- title: Kevin Anderson Bests Roger Federer in Wimbledon Nail-Biter description: In an hours-long, deeply competitive Wimbledon match, Switzerland's Roger Federer finally fell against South Africa's Kevin Anderson. canonical: https://time.com/5335848/federer-exits-wimbledon/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-07-11T17:06:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:53:48.050Z og:title: Kevin Anderson Bests Roger Federer in Wimbledon Nail-Biter og:description: In the end, it just wasn't meant to be Roger Federer's year at Wimbledon og:url: https://time.com/5335848/federer-exits-wimbledon/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd31112430795281e/69893528cf40a83678c4cb33/federer-anderson-wimbledon.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Day Nine: The Championships - Wimbledon 2018 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Kevin Anderson Bests Roger Federer in Wimbledon Nail-Biter twitter:description: In the end, it just wasn't meant to be Roger Federer's year at Wimbledon twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd31112430795281e/69893528cf40a83678c4cb33/federer-anderson-wimbledon.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Roger Federer Exits Wimbledon After a Nail-Biting Match Against Kevin Anderson  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jul 11, 2018 5:06 PM UTC  Roger Federer of Switzerland thanks the crowd after losing his Men's Singles Quarter-Finals match against Kevin Anderson of South Africa on day nine of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 11, 2018 in London, England. Roger Federer of Switzerland thanks the crowd after losing his Men's Singles Quarter-Finals match against Kevin Anderson of South Africa on day nine of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 11, 2018 in London, England.Julian Finney—Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jul 11, 2018 5:06 PM UTC In the end, it just wasn’t meant to be [Roger Federer](http://time.com/5324241/roger-federer-rafael-nadal-wimbledon/)‘s year at Wimbledon. After four hours of hard play on Tuesday at the grass courts of Wimbledon’s [All England Lawn Tennis and Racquet Club](http://time.com/5323876/wimbledon-2018-dress-code/), the Swiss tennis superstar and [championship mainstay](http://time.com/collection-post/5217613/roger-federer/) fell in a dramatic five-set game against South Africa’s Kevin Anderson. It was a surprise result that now sends the eighth-seeded Anderson to the semifinals at Wimbledon, his first time making it that far in the storied competition that Federer has [won eight times](http://www.wimbledon.com/en%5FGB/players/overview/atpf324.html), including last year. While Federer started out strong, besting Anderson 6-2 and 7-6 in the first few sets, his dominance became less complete as play went on. Federer matched his own record of winning 34 straight sets at this year’s Wimbledon, but Anderson came for him on their third round and found his own edge. The final game was an extensive nail-biter, with Anderson ultimately winning out 13-11\. In all, the two battled it out for [over four hours.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/tennis/the-latest-federer-returns-to-no-1-court-at-wimbledon/2018/07/11/ec302a40-8504-11e8-9e06-4db52ac42e05%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.e4268e9eeb81) Anderson, a 2017 U.S. Open runner-up, is now looking good going into the semifinal against either Canada’s Milos Raonic or U.S. competitor John Isner. Others still in the running for this year’s men’s singles title include Spanish star Rafael Nadal and Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro, currently duking it out in [their own quarterfinal.](http://www.wimbledon.com/en%5FGB/scores/schedule/index.html) > [](https://twitter.com/bbctennis/status/1017085496546095104) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5335848/federer-exits-wimbledon/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5335848/federer-exits-wimbledon/"},"headline":"Roger Federer Exits Wimbledon After a Nail-Biting Match Against Kevin Anderson","datePublished":"2018-07-11T17:06:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:53:48.050Z","description":"In the end, it just wasn't meant to be Roger Federer's year at Wimbledon","url":"https://time.com/5335848/federer-exits-wimbledon/","keywords":["Newsfeed","tennis","Roger Federer","Sports"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd31112430795281e/69893528cf40a83678c4cb33/federer-anderson-wimbledon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd31112430795281e/69893528cf40a83678c4cb33/federer-anderson-wimbledon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Day Nine: The Championships - Wimbledon 2018","caption":"Day Nine: The Championships - Wimbledon 2018","creditText":"Julian Finney—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5335848/federer-exits-wimbledon/","name":"Roger Federer Exits Wimbledon After a Nail-Biting Match Against Kevin Anderson"}}]}] ```