Ancic sets up Federer re-match

LONDON, July 3 (Reuters) Croatian seventh seed Mario Ancic beat 19-year-old Serbian pretender Novak Djokovic 6-4 4-6 4-6 7-5 6-3 today to set up a Wimbledon quarter-final against three-times champion Roger Federer.

Ancic was the last man to beat Federer on grass. That was in the Wimbledon first round in 2002. Federer last week broke Bjorn Borg's record of 41 consecutive grasscourt victories.

Today 22-year-old Ancic and Djokovic were hard to separate on a steamy afternoon, rattling winners from the back of the court and trading big serves. The 1.96 metre-tall Ancic delivered 31 aces in the match.

At 1-2 in the fifth and with the dipping sun dazzling one end of court two, Djokovic called a time-out for a problem with his eyes and resumed after the trainer administered drops.

But he lost his serve immediately to a fine crosscourt forehand and Ancic took command again.

The curly haired Croat clinched victory on his first match point when Djokovic put a forehand into the net after three hours 23 minutes.

Reuters DH VP0030