Federer continues march

Dubai: Top seed and world number one Roger Federer showed why he is the best as he powered past Italy's Daniele Bracciali 7-5, 6-3 to enter the quarterfinals of the Dubai Duty Free Men's Open yesterday.

The win took Federer's unbeaten run to 38 matches and set him up for a quarterfinal clash against the fast-improving Novak Djokovic of Serbia.

The 19-year-old Djokovic took his time to settle down before wading his way to a 7-6 (5), 6-3 win against last year's semifinalist Rainer Schuettler.

The third day saw the fall of two more seeds when sixth seeded Tomas Berdych was shown the door by Russian Mikhail Youzhny 7-6 (6), 6-3 and Olivier Rochus sent third seed Nikolay Davydenko packing with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 victory.

Youzhny, one of the semifinalists here last year, has set up a quarterfinal clash either against Rafael Nadal or Igor Andreev, while Rochus will run into German Tommy Haas.

But it was the centre court that held attention as three-time winner Federer made his intentions clear from the start against Bracciali as the Swiss ace held serve on love to go 1-0 up. The Italian matched him, a couple of booming serves timed at 224kmph and 190kmph to draw level 1-1.

Bracciali had a couple of chances to break in the third and fifth, but Federer did enough to hold serve.

The Italian from Tuscany proved to be a worthy opponent - matching the world number one till Federer came up with a crucial break on the 12th game to win the set 7-5.

"I think it was a bit of a struggle for me in the beginning and I may have taken the first 10 minutes to get adjusted with the conditions out there," Federer stated.

In the second set, Federer stepped up his game and held serve on either side of a break to go 3-0 clear. But the fourth game went on for eternity till Bracciali held serve to win the first game of the second set (1-3).

The greatness of the Swiss ace was once again on display in the sixth game when he ran for a Bracciali lob down the line and sent in a winner down the line through his legs to stay 5-2 up. "All these players are capable of winning. I have watched him and he's got an incredible first serve, he's a tough player and he can also volley. But I did not give him too many chances today," Federer said.

Djokovic gave very little away as he tamed Schuettler in straight sets 7-6 (5), 6-3, while Haas struggled to overcome jet lag before carving out an identical 7-6 (5), 6-3 win against Florent Serra.

Order of Play: (March 1)

Centre Court (Start at 2 pm): Robin Soderling vs Fabrice Santoro; Olivier Rochus vs Tommy Haas; (7 pm) Roger Federer vs Novak Djokovic; Mikhail Youzhny vs Rafael Nadal or Igor Andreev.

Results:

Singles (Second round)
Fabrice Santoro bt Gilles Simon 6-4, 6-2; Robin Soderling bt Dominik Hrbaty 6-3, 7-5; Tommy Haas bt Florent Serra 7-6 (5), 6-3; Mikhail Youzhny bt Tomas Berdych 7-6 (6), 6-3; Roger Federer bt Daniele Bracciali 7-5, 6-3; Olivier Rochus bt Nikolay Davydenko 6-4, 4-6, 6-2; Novak Djokovic bt Rainer Schuettler 7-6 (5), 6-3.

Doubles
Fabrice Santoro/Nenad Zimonjic bt Jonas Bjorkman/Tommy Haas 6-2, 7-5; Mahesh Bhupathi/Radek Stepanek bt Dominik Hrbaty/Jarkko Nieminen 6-0, 6-3; Mark Knowles/Daniel Nestor bt Marcos Baghdatis/Gilles Simon 6-3, 6-2; Tomas Berdych/Petr Pala bt Martin Damm/Leander Paes 6-3, 6-4.