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 Swiss second seed Federer needed just 55 minutes to register his
easy win but top seed Novak Djokovic, third seed Andy Murray and
fifth seed Stan Wawrinka were all taken the distance in their
matches at the U.S. Open warm-up event in Cincinnati.
Playing in his first tournament since losing the Wimbledon final to
Djokovic last month, Federer looks fresh and rested and advanced to
a last eight encounter against Spain's Feliciano Lopez, who upset
2013 Cincinnati champion Nadal 5-7 6-4 7-6(3).
"I think the first break always gives you a bit of a boost and right
then I felt conditions weren't that fast and I could probably get
some more balls back than maybe a day session," Federer told
reporters of his win over the big-serving Anderson.
"Then it was just important to keep it up with my serving. I did
that very well tonight, so I am really pleased it was a rock solid
performance.
"It's only quarter-finals, I know it's a good result so far and I'm
playing great tennis but hopefully I can keep it up tomorrow."
Djokovic looked in danger when he dropped the opening three games of
the final set against 13th-seeded Belgian David Goffin, but roared
back for a 6-2 2-6 6-3 win to set up a French Open final rematch
against Stan Wawrinka.
The Swiss claimed his second grand slam title with a four-set
victory over Djokovic in Paris and beat Croatia's Ivo Karlovic
6-7(2) 7-6(5) 7-6(5) to book a showdown against the top seed.
PARIS REMATCH
The Serbian world number one ran into trouble when his 24-year-old
opponent broke in the first game of the second set, which resulted
in a frustrated Djokovic destroying his racket with three smashes
against the hard court.
Goffin went on to win eight of the next 10 games to put himself in
position for a massive upset but Djokovic found his groove in time
to prevail.
"Credit to him for playing some solid, consistent tennis, always
making me play an extra shot," Djokovic said. "Luckily for me, I
managed to bounce back, dig myself out of this hole I was in."
Djokovic and Wawrinka will meet for the 22nd time on Friday, but it
will be their first clash since the Swiss triumphed at Roland Garros
in June.
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Wawrinka was also forced to dig deep in his third round clash where
big-serving Karlovic fired 35 aces to his opponent's eight, but the
Croatian's biggest weapon faltered when he needed it most as he
double faulted while serving to save match point.
"It's going to be the first time we've met (since) the French Open
final," Djokovic said about his next opponent. "Both of us, we are
still not playing our best, but hopefully we can rise to the
occasion and have a good match."
Murray, who won the Rogers Cup in Montreal on Sunday, looked a
little jaded after a tough two weeks but the Briton somehow
recovered to beat Grigor Dimitrov 4-6 7-6(3) 7-5 in a little under
three hours after twice looking to be headed for defeat.
Trailing 5-2 in the deciding set after also being 4-1 down in the
second, Murray, who rose to number two in the world rankings on
Monday, dug deep into his resources to rally for a victory that sets
up a quarter-final against Richard Gasquet.
Sixth seed Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic breezed by unseeded Tommy
Robredo of Spain 6-0 6-1. He will meet Alexandr Dolgopolov in the
quarter-finals after the Ukrainian qualifier dispatched Jerzy
Janowicz of Poland 6-3 3-6 6-4.
The U.S. Open starts on Aug. 31.
(Writing by Tim Wharnsby and Ben Everill; Editing by John O'Brien)
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