Nadal, the 2008 and 2010 champion, will face either Juan Martin del Potro, the fifth seed from Argentina, or unseeded Gilles Simon of France Williams is looking for her eighth Wimbledon title and has established herself as the big favorite once again LONDON: World number one Rafael Nadal reached his first Wimbledon quarter-final since 2011 with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 win over Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic on Monday. Nadal, the 2008 and 2010 champion, will face either Juan Martin del Potro, the fifth seed from Argentina, or unseeded Gilles Simon of France for a place in the semifinals. It will be 32-year-old Nadal’s 35th appearance in a Grand Slam quarter-final as he continues his bid to win an 18th major title. Elsewhere, Roger Federer advanced to a record-extending 16th Wimbledon quarterfinal with a 6-0, 7-5, 6-4 victory over Adrian Mannarino of France. The eight-time champion earned his latest win with maximum efficiency on Center Court, particularly during a 16-minute first set, where the top-seeded Federer lost just five points. The 22nd-seeded Mannarino became the first man to earn a break point against Federer at the tournament, but was unable to take any of his four opportunities. Federer has now won 32 consecutive sets at Wimbledon to move within one straight-sets victory of breaking his previous longest streak at the All England Club, when he won 34 in a row between the third round in 2005 and the final in 2006. On the women’s side of the draw, Serena Williams is back in the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the 13th time after beating Russian qualifier Evgeniya Rodina 6-4, 6-2. In a matchup of the only two mothers remaining in the draw, Williams jumped into a 3-0 lead in both sets and wrapped up the win in 62 minutes. “It was tougher than the scoreline,” Williams said. “I knew we were both moms, and I’m not sure how often that’s happened, if ever. So it’s really cool. You can be a mom, you can still play tennis and you can still be great.” Rodina, who upset 10th-seeded Madison Keys in the previous round, broke back for 3-2 in the second set but was broken to love straight away. Williams is looking for her eighth Wimbledon title and has established herself as the big favorite once again, with the top-10 seeds all eliminated. She is seeded 25th after missing last year’s tournament while pregnant. Meanwhile, Wimbledon chiefs insisted again on Monday that the men’s final will start at its traditional time despite it clashing with a potential England FIFA World Cup triumph. The All England Club has come under increasing pressure to rethink its 2pm (1300GMT) start time for Sunday’s men’s singles final with the football showpiece in Moscow kicking off at 4pm in the UK (1500GMT). Should England defeat Croatia in Wednesday’s semifinal then the national team will feature in a World Cup final for the first time since lifting the trophy in 1966. “It is purely our decision to stay at 2pm. It will stay this year, it will stay next year,” said All England Club chief executive Richard Lewis. Defending champion Roger Federer, who is more than likely to be playing in Sunday’s final, even joked that maybe the World Cup final should move to accommodate the Wimbledon title match. “I’m more concerned the World Cup final will have issues because the Wimbledon final is going on,” said the eight-time champion after seeing off France’s Adrian Mannarino in straight sets on Monday. “They’ll hear every point, Wow, Love-15, 15-30. The players (at the World Cup) are going to look up in the crowd and not understand what’s going on at Wimbledon. “That’s how important Wimbledon is to me and to us over here.”