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MELBOURNE - A strangely out of sorts Roger Federer spluttered to a 6-2 7-5 6-3 win over 14th seed Novak Djokovic to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals last night.
The Swiss defending champion was always in control against the 19-year-old Serb, but the world number one made an
unusual number of uncharacteristic errors and only showed occasional flashes of his customary brilliance.
Federer was still satisfied with his performance in the night match on Rod Laver Arena after sealing his fourth successive straights-sets victory in one hour 50 minutes.
"I'm very happy with how everything went," Federer said.
"I got a good start and I thought I was pretty much in control of the match. I had one careless moment in the second set but I was able to get out of it.
"Young players can take a lot of chances and I knew it was going to be a tough match but it went well enough for me."
The top seed twice broke the teenager, one of a new generation of young players hoping to challenge his domination of the sport, to ease through the first set.
When he also secured an early break in the second Federer looked on course for a quick passage to the last eight.
But he carelessly netted a simple smash to hand Djokovic the break back and rattled off a series of uncharacteristic errors to give the teenager hope.
Federer, 6-5 ahead, eked out a break point with a fluffed return that clipped the baseline and took advantage of it when his opponent netted a backhand.
Djokovic tried a number of ambitious drop shots to try to upset the Swiss and although he won a few points in this manner it was a risky tactic.
Federer, 25, re-established control with an early break in the third and was never threatened on his serve before clinching victory with an ace on his first match point.
"You always feel sorry that you lost a match even against the best player in the world," Djokovic said.
"I didn't have confidence in my serve and I think everything started from there. I was always chasing him.
"It's always a good experience to play Roger, you can always learn things from him."
Federer extended his unbeaten streak to 33 matches and stayed on course for his 10th grand slam title and third in a row.
He will play seventh seed Tommy Robredo of Spain in the quarters.
- REUTERS