“I was feeling like he was not loving my slice and I was also mixing in dropshots,” said Federer who extended his perfect record this season to 14-0.

“I really I was able to mix up my game nicely, make it difficult for him.

“At the same time, have fun with my game, play a variation, but for the most part try to stay on the offensive.”

Federer blasted six aces, had one double fault and won 89 percent of his first serve points, losing just three points on his serve the entire match.

“I actually was explosive out there today and I felt good,” he said. “So I’m very happy how things are turning out to be.”

After handing back an early break to allow Krajinovic to draw level at two-all, Federer moved into cruise control.

At one point he won 17 straight points en route to taking a 6-2, 3-0 lead, winning 10 of the final 11 games in the match.

Federer, who is the defending champion and trying to win a record sixth title in the California desert, was on the centre stadium for the third day in a row.

His opening match on Saturday night against Federico Delbonis carried over into Sunday afternoon after heavy rains forced a postponement of several night matches.

He said playing matches three days in a row doesn’t faze him.

“You’ve got to be ready for it. It’s what tennis players do. We wait, we play, we wait again, we play again.

“In Rotterdam I played five matches in a row,” he said. “Back in the day, I used to play six matches in a row.

“At the Masters 1000s, when the format was different, it was the best-of-five-set finals in the finals. Playing three matches in a row. I think I’m okay.”

Federer has already won two titles in 2018, claiming his 20th Grand Slam crown by winning the Australian Open in January. The other victory came in Rotterdam.

In the next round he faces Jeremy Chardy, who beat fellow Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 7-5, 4-6, 6-1.

In other men’s matches, fifth seeded Dominic Thiem became the latest top seed to fall as he was forced to retire from his match with Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay in the third set with a right ankle sprain. Cuevas was leading 3-6, 6-4, 4-2 when Thiem packed it in.

Also, American Taylor Fritz defeated Fernando Verdasco of Spain, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7/1), Croatia’s Borna Coric breezed past Roberto Bautista 6-1, 6-3 and Pablo Carreno-Busta of Spain, stopped Russian Daniil Medvedev 6-1, 7-5.

The post Federer rolls into fourth round at Indian Wells appeared first on Iran News Daily.

Ice-cool Roger Federer roared into an Australian Open quarter-final with Tomas Berdych Monday as former champion Angelique Kerber stuttered into an enticing clash with Madison Keys.

The defending champion swatted aside one-time training partner Marton Fucsovics 6-4, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 to make the last eight for an incredible 14th time.

The Swiss maestro, 36, has made at least the last eight every year since 2004, bar a hiccup in 2015.

“He played very well,” the 19-time Grand Slam champion said of the Hungarian. “You needed to have quick ideas and execute well today.”

Second seed Federer will now play fellow veteran Berdych, a semi-finalist in 2014 and 2015 at his most successful major, who demolished Italy’s Fabio Fognini 6-1, 6-4, 6-4.

“I have no choice to choose the opponent and may the better man win,” said the 19th seeded Czech.

“I am going to get myself ready, it’s all I can do, and prepare the best I can.”

Germany’s Kerber is the only Grand Slam champion left among the women, and she was given a big fright as she chases her second Melbourne Park crown after beating Serena Williams in 2016.

After crushing Maria Sharapova in the last round, she came up against gritty Taiwanese veteran Hsieh Su-wei who stunned the 21st seed by taking the first set on Rod Laver Arena.

“I was just trying to focus on every point.”

Hsieh, ranked 88, was always going to be a threat after knocking out world number three Garbine Muguruza and the dangerous Agnieszka Radwanska en route to the fourth round.

The win set Kerber up with a clash against American Keys, a semi-finalist in 2015 who has found a new lease of life under the guidance of former great Lindsay Davenport.

– Enjoying the job –

Seeded 17, she flattened French eighth seed Caroline Garcia 6-3, 6-2 in just 68 impressive minutes.

“I feel like I’m playing just solid, consistent tennis,” said Keys, a US Open finalist last year. “I think today was a good example of that. I think I served well. I think I returned well.”

The 22-year-old added: “Right now I’m definitely really enjoying my job.”

Whoever wins that match will have a potential semi-final against world number one Simona Halep, although the Romanian first has to get past Japan’s Naomi Osaka on Margaret Court Arena.

The glasses-wearing South Korean, ranked 58, upset fourth seed Alexander Zverev in five sets in the round of 16 and Djokovic is wary.

“He’s playing great. He’s fit. He doesn’t have too many holes in his game,” he said.

The winner will face either Austrian fifth seed Dominic Thiem or American surprise packet Tennys Sandgren.

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