Roger Federer rolls on to easy win against Dan Evans

The British section of the Centre Court crowd were hoping for yet another upset, but the former world number one disappointed them with a show of class and dominance.

The match did not begin until after 7.30pm after two long contests and Federer needed only an hour and 27 minutes to win 6-4 6-2 6-2.

As he did with Marcus Willis, Federer was happy to let his British opponent have his moment by walking first onto Centre Court.

Ranked as low as 772 last May, the 26-year-old from Solihull was a top-100 player a year later and this was the first year he had won a match at Wimbledon.

He followed up his first-round victory over Jan-Lennard Struff by producing one of the best displays of his career to swat aside 30th seed Alexandr Dolgopolov.

Evans made it clear after that match that he saw his date with Federer as a chance for an upset rather than a day out on Centre Court.

He made a nervous start on serve and in no time found himself 4-0 down but then began to show his form of Thursday, matching the 17-time grand slam champion off the ground.

He won three games in a row but the deficit was just too great and Federer served out the first set.

What Evans needed was to take his momentum into the second but Federer played a brilliant game to break to love in the opener and was soon 4-0 up again.

Evans was close to playing Federer on his only previous run to the third round of a slam, when he made his breakthrough at the US Open in 2013.

Evans defeated Kei Nishikori and Bernard Tomic in the first two rounds but could not take his chances against Tommy Robredo, who went on to stun Federer in round four.

That was the nadir of Federer's struggles with his back and his confidence until this year, when age appears finally to have started catching up with the 34-year-old.

He underwent surgery for the first time in his career in February after damaging his knee running his daughters a bath and then missed a grand slam for the first time since 1999 when he sat out the French Open following back trouble.

His priority through all of it was to be fit for an 18th consecutive Wimbledon, and his form, particularly given Novak Djokovic's difficulties, suggested his protestations that an eighth title was beyond him may have been premature. He was hitting the ball crisply and sending Evans scampering to all parts of tennis' most hallowed stage.

The British number four began the third set very brightly, earning a clap from Federer for a forehand winner that gave him the first game.

But Federer then reeled off five games in a row and clinched victory when Evans put a return wide to set up a fourth-round clash with either Grigor Dimitrov or Steve Johnson.

Federer is the first man through to the fourth round after the first five days on the outer courts were disrupted by rain.