There was no intention to deceive but rarely has more of a falsehood been spoken than during Roger Federer’s assessment of his condition now as compared with 12 months ago when he so exacerbated the knee injury he had taken into Wimbledon that he had to spend six months on the sidelines.

“This year I’m just a normal tennis player again,” said the 35-year-old who’s playing style and longevity in the modern era of the sport had seen him branded super-human even before the extraordinary Indian summer of his career got underway in January.

He was, however, speaking very specifically about being able to take to the court paying more attention to overcoming an opponent than nursing injuries and when subsequently asked if his preparation had gone so well that he now felt super-charged he did not back away from the notion.

“Well, that was the idea, that the second week of Wimbledon is that I would feel my best. I feel like it’s coming along nicely, to be quite honest,” he said.

Those sounded worrying words for his three remaining rivals only one of whom, Marin Cilic at the US Open three years ago, has won a Grand Slam tournament, while Tomas Berdych is the only member of the trio to have contested a Wimbledon final, all of seven years ago. Federer was, of course, respectful of all three, but as the only remaining member of the sport’s ‘big four’ who were fully expected to contest the semis when they all made it into the second week for the first time in six years, he stands head and shoulders clear in terms of proven class.

“These other guys are all big hitters,” he said, however. “I feel like they will have their word to say in the outcome. All three guys are taller and stronger than I am. I got to figure out a different way, carve my way through the draw somehow with my slice and my spins, my consistency maybe.”

That was what was so striking about his quarter-final performance against a man who had not exactly blown him off court even when he was ailing 12 months ago, but whose power had ultimately been the decisive factor in that semi-final. Milos Raonic was to say afterwards that he thought Federer was mentally stronger and moving better than during that previous encounter and on the day Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic followed Rafael Nadal out of the draw, there was a certain symbolism to the fact that Federer so easily eliminated the opponent that many suspected had ended his last real chance of winning an eighth Wimbledon title last year. Doing so would separate Federer from Pete Sampras and 19th century trail-blazer William Renshaw, a distinction no-one could begrudge him and he was at his imperious best in ejecting the Canadian from the tournament in less than two hours, 6-4, 6-2, 7-6.

What was perhaps even more remarkable than the ease with which Federer won his quarter-final was the realisation that it was still his toughest match of the tournament to date in terms of time spent on court, his five matches to date having lasted a combined total of seven hours and 38 minutes. No wonder he looks so fresh, in spite of having had to fend off a head cold in the opening week.

While he has admitted that it was with a heavy heart that he withdrew from last year’s French Open, ending a record run of 65 consecutive Grand Slam tournament appearances in doing so, Federer believes he is now being rewarded for having protected his body as he increasingly has, a message that resonated with his ‘big four’ rivals when he won the Australian Open in January and will do so all the more now that they have all passed their 30th birthdays and are feeling the stresses and strains of competing at the highest level for so long.

“Once you hit 30, you’ve got to look back and think of how much tennis have I played, how much rest did I give my body over the years, how much training have I done, did I do enough, did I overdo it or not enough,” Federer explained. “It’s always calibrating the whole thing. For me it worked out. That doesn’t mean it’s going to for everybody, but sometimes maybe the body and the mind do need a rest. Who knows… you just want to take that decision early enough or see it coming and anticipate. The problem is you can only play with a certain injury for a certain amount of time, because what you don’t want happening is that it becomes chronic. Then even a surgery can’t help you that much any more.”

He is not prepared to go as far as to say that he is playing the very best tennis of his career at this advanced stage, but for all that he has made sure he has given himself every chance of doing so, he hinted at having surpassed his own expectations in sustaining such a high level of play.

“I’m just very happy that I’m still doing so well. Am I surprised? Maybe a little bit, but the plan was always to hopefully be strong also later on in my career,” he said.

As with so much of this peerless tennis career, that plan is working well.