KEY POINTS:
NEW YORK - Roger Federer responded to a stellar start by Feliciano Lopez with an even better finish yesterday to advance to the quarter-finals and a clash with old foe Andy Roddick at the US Open.
Three-time defending champion Federer earned a matchup with 2003 champion Roddick by
beating Lopez 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-4 in a two-hour slugfest on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The 60th-ranked Lopez had Federer on his heels early, winning the first set with five aces and 11 winners.
His dazzling display continued until Federer scored a break in the 10th game to win the second set and Lopez never recovered.
Fifth seed Roddick was leading 7-6, 2-0 when ninth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych retired with nausea and breathing problems in their fourth-round match.
The American said he felt sorry for Berdych but with a world No 1 Federer waiting in the wings, he added: "This is a lot better than being dead tired."
Also advancing were fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko, of Russia, and 10th seed Tommy Haas, of Germany.
Women's winners included fourth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, sixth seed Russian Anna Chakvetadze and Israeli upstart Shahar Peer.
Lopez, 25, played as well as he could during the first two sets, causing the 23,000 in the cavernous stadium to squirm in anticipation of a monumental upset. But once Federer got a foothold he kept the pressure on his bewildered opponent.
"I was feeling great on the serve," said Federer, who won 35 consecutive points on his serve in the final two sets. "It was an awesome match."
Federer committed just 12 errors during the 199 points played in the match. Lopez had 22 winners in the first two sets but only 12 thereafter.
Kuznetsova needed only 74 minutes to dispose of awestruck Victoria Azarenka, of Belarus, 6-2, 6-3 to reach the Open's last eight for the first time since winning the title in 2004.
"I feel like I'm getting better every match," said Kuznetsova, the highest remaining seed in the bottom half of the draw. She now faces unseeded Agnes Szavay, of Hungary, who beat Ukraine's Julia Vakulenko 6-4, 7-6.
Chakvetadze had 23 errors during a second-set wobble but beat Austrian teenager Tamira Paszek 6-1, 7-5, and now faces Israel's Shahar Peer for a place in the semifinals.
Peer, the 18th seed, reached her second Grand Slam quarter-final of the year when she brushed aside Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska, third-round conqueror of 2006 champion Maria Sharapova, 6-4, 6-1.
In a doubles upset, US top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan were beaten 7-5,6-4 in the quarter-finals by 10th seeds Simon Aspelin, of Sweden, and Julian Knowle, of Austria.
- Reuters