 Federer started his season by participating in the Brisbane International as the defending champion , despite having a flu when the tournament started . However , in a rematch of the previous year final , he lost in the final to Milos Raonic in straight sets . Federer then participated at the 2016 Australian Open and rebounded from his third round defeat by Andreas Seppi in 2015 by reaching the semifinals but lost to eventual champion Novak Djokovic in four sets . The day after his loss to Djokovic , Federer sustained a knee injury and in early February , he underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his knee and missed the tournaments in Rotterdam and Dubai in February and in Indian Wells in March . He was scheduled to return to action in Miami . Due to a stomach flu he had to withdraw from Miami thus prolonging his time on the sidelines . He did however , make his comeback at the Monte @-@ Carlo Masters with straight set wins over Guillermo García @-@ López and Roberto Bautista Agut before losing in the quarterfinals to Jo @-@ Wilfried Tsonga in three sets . Federer then announced that he would be entering the Madrid Open . However , he suffered a back injury during practice and withdrew shortly after arriving . Although the season had been plagued with injuries , Federer regained the # 2 ranking in the world for a brief moment following Madrid . He then participated in the Internazionali BNL d 'Italia where he defeated Alexander Zverev in straight sets , but lost in the third round to Dominic Thiem . He subsequently missed the Madrid Open , before withdrawing from the French Open , breaking a run of 65 consecutive participations in the main @-@ draw of Grand Slam tournaments , stretching back to the 2000 Australian Open . On 6 July , he came back from two sets down to defeat Marin Čilić in five sets in the 2016 Wimbledon quarterfinals , equalling Jimmy Connors ' all @-@ time records of eleven Wimbledon semifinals and 84 match wins . He suffered his first ever defeat in a Wimbledon semifinal two days later , in five set loss to Raonic . 
