Wimbledon, England -- (Sports Network) - Roger Federer dropped a set for the first time in this year's Wimbledon but still advanced one step closer to his 15th major title with a third round victory at the All England Club Friday.

Federer, the de facto top seed after Rafael Nadal withdrew from the tournament, needed 2 hours, 31 minutes to defeat Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 6-1 on Centre Court, where the Swiss has won five of the last six championships here. In the all-time series between the two opponents, Federer has taken all four matches, although this was the first time they had met in a Grand Slam event.

After losing a tough tiebreaker in the third set -- dropping Federer's all- time Wimbledon tiebreaker record to 27-9 -- the second-ranked Swiss superstar held serve and immediately broke Kohlschreiber for the sixth time to take the early lead in the fourth set. It was all he would need to cruise the rest of the way, breaking his opponent again in the set's sixth game before holding serve one last time to cap off the win.

Although he posted seven breaks of serve, Federer was surprisingly ineffective in his chances, converting only 7-of-22 break points. In addition, Kohlschreiber claimed two games on Federer's serve, which was somewhat inaccurate throughout the match. Overall, the Swiss hit on 68 percent of his first serves and drilled 15 aces.

A winner of 115 straight Grand Slam matches against opponents outside the top-5, Federer is now an unblemished 46-0 when winning the first set of a match here at the AEC.

Next up on Federer's quest to break Pete Sampras' all-time record for major victories is a familiar face: 13th-seeded Robin Soderling. Soderling was his last obstacle en route to claiming the French Open crown earlier this month, as he posted an easy 6-1, 7-6 (7-1), 6-4 victory on the red clay at Roland Garros to tie Sampras with 14 Grand Slam wins.

To make it to his 21st straight major quarterfinal round, Federer will have to beat Soderling for the 11th straight time after taking the first 10 matches between the two. Soderling, of Sweden, posted a 7-6 (9-7), 6-4, 6-4 win over Spain's Nicolas Almagro to advance.

Tasting major success for the first time on the professional tour, Soderling is now into the fourth round in his second straight Grand Slam tournament after failing to reach that level in his first 21 tries.

Also advancing quite easily was fourth-seeded Novak Djokovic, who ousted 28th- seeded American Mardy Fish 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in 1 hour, 58 minutes. Djokovic, who was upset in the second round of last year's Wimbledon, advanced to the fourth round for the third time in his career. His best finish here came in 2007, when he was a semifinalist and lost to eventual runner-up Nadal.

Djokovic has yet to break through for a second major title since winning the Australian Open in 2008 -- the only major out of the past 17 not to be won by Federer or Nadal. The Serb defeated Fish for the third time in as many tries, having also beaten him in the second round of the 2006 U.S. Open.

Fish was unable to overcome a poor ground game, committing 28 unforced errors, compared to just 15 for Djokovic. Next up for Djokovic is unseeded Israeli Dudi Sela, who advanced to his first-ever Grand Slam fourth round by defeating 15th-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo 7-6 (10-8), 7-5, 2-6, 7-5. The victory for Sela should come as a surprise to nobody, as he has beaten Robredo three times in three opportunities.

Sela's next test figures to be much tougher, having played Djokovic only once in his career and losing in straight sets in 2006 on a hard surface.

In other action, seventh-seeded Fernando Verdasco advanced to the fourth round here for the third time in four years, besting 32nd-seeded Albert Montanes 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2) in 2 hours, 17 minutes. Verdasco's ground game was too much for Montanes, as he hit 57 winners, compared to just 32 for his opponent.

The hard-hitting Verdasco, who advanced to the semifinals at this year's Australian Open, will need to beat 22nd-seeded Ivo Karlovic to get to the quarterfinals for the first time at Wimbledon. In three previous matches against Karlovic, Verdasco has only won once, although the two have never met in a Grand Slam event.

Karlovic, who is the ATP Tour's tallest player at 6-foot-10 and recently set a record for most aces in a match (55) in a French Open loss to Lleyton Hewitt, won a tough battle with ninth-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (5-7), 7-5, 7-6 (7-5) in a match that featured just one break of serve.

The Croat Karlovic is in the fourth round at Wimbledon for the first time since 2004 and drilled 46 aces in the win over Tsonga, failing to even yield a break point the entire match.

The final two matches on Day 5 at the AEC were suspended due to darkness with the 11th seed Croat Marin Cilic and 24th-seeded German Tommy Haas knotted 6-6 in the fifth set. Cilic dropped the first two sets but rallied 5-7, 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (7-3) to reach a deciding fifth set. Meanwhile, No. 29 seed Russian Igor Andreev was leading Italian Andreas Seppi 6-1, 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 5-5 when play was called.

The third round is set to conclude on Saturday before the traditional off day on Sunday. Third-seeded Scot Andy Murray is set to face 30th seed Viktor Troicki and American sixth seed Andy Roddick will do battle with 26th seed Jurgen Melzer.

Other top-10 seeds set to play are eighth-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon, who will play Victor Hanescu, and Chilean 10th seed Fernando Gonzalez, who will go against Juan Carlos Ferrero.