Updated on
Summary Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer stormed into the quarterfinals of the Dubai Tennis Championships.
Novak Djokovic beat Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 7-6 (5), 6-3 and Roger Federer defeated Feliciano Lopez of Spain 7-5, 6-3 to join him in the quarterfinals of the Dubai Tennis Championships on Wednesday.Andy Murray also reached the last eight with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland, as did Mikhail Youzhny. The Russian downed out-of-form Mardy Fish of the United States 6-2, 7-6 (0).The top-ranked Djokovic, gunning for his fourth consecutive title in Dubai, wasnt at his best in beating Cedrik-Marcel Stebe in the opening round and nor was he against Stakhovsky.Stakhovsky was 4-3 up in the first-set tiebreaker but two costly unforced errors let Djokovic off the hook, the Serb taking it when the 74th-ranked Ukrainian hit a forehand long.Djokovic was 3-1 down in the second set but reeled off five straight games to set up an all-Serb match against Janko Tipsarevic, who beat Flavio Cipolla of Italy 6-7 (2), 6-1, 6-1.Federer broke the 15th-ranked Lopez in the final game to end a tight opening set. The second set was more routine, breaking the Spaniard to lead 5-3 and closing out the match with a volley winner from the net.Federer, who was beaten in the Dubai final last year by Djokovic, is going for his fifth title and second in 2012 after having won in Rotterdam, Netherlands.In a reprise of the 2007 final, Federer will next face Youzhny, whom he has never lost to in 11 meetings. He said the Russian has one of the best backhands in the game and a good slice.Fishs loss to Youzhny was another setback to what has already been a disappointing start to 2012.After replacing Andy Roddick as the top-ranked American last year, Fish has struggled this season. He lost in the second round of the Australian Open and was beaten by 388th-ranked Albano Olivetti in the Marseille quarterfinals last week. He did, however, help the United States rout Switzerland 5-0 in the Davis Cup.Murray, who complained of feeling unwell in his opening-round victory against German qualifier Michael Berrer in three sets, looked more like the player that reached the Australian Open semifinals.He broke the 185th-ranked Chiudinelli early in the first set and moved him around the court with ease. The second set was closer as both players held serve for the first eight games. But Murray broke Chiudinelli to lead 5-4, winning the match with an unreturnable serve.Murray will play fifth-seeded Tomas Berdych, who beat Lukas Lacko of Slovakia 6-1, 6-2.In the late match, fourth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-4. He will play eighth-seeded Juan Martin del Potro, who beat Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-4, 6-2.
