Roger Federer seals top four Wimbledon seeding after beating Mischa Zverev

The Australian Open champion won 7-6 6-4 in Halle against his opponent, who served and volleyed at every opportunity.

The win means Federer joins Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic as the top four seeds and avoids them until the semi-finals at Wimbledon.

If Federer, who now plays Florian Mayer in the quarter-finals, wins Halle he will be the third seed at SW19.

Federer, an eight-time champion at Halle, earned three set points in the 10th game of first set but was unable to break Zverev’s serve.

The set eventually went to a tie-break and Federer won it with an excellent cross court backhand on his fourth set point.

The second set looked to be heading towards another tiebreak but Federer broke Zverev for the first time to lead 5-4.

And he made no mistake on his own serve to maintain his unbeaten streak against Zverev.

Federer leads his head to head with last-eight opponent Mayer 7-0, including three straight-sets wins in Halle (2005, 2012, 2015).