World number one Roger Federer continued his title defense campaign in Miami in sublime fashion as he defeated Russia's Dmitry Tursunov in the fourth round on Tuesday. The Swiss seven-time Grand Slam champion needed no more than 57 minutes to finish off Tursunov, who recovered from an early service break in the first set but failed to capitalize as Federer claimed three more service breaks to seal a solid 6-3, 6-3 win. “It was tough, tough match, like expected in the conditions. I knew I was gonna play in a time when the sun was gonna go down. Wind wasn't too bad. I thought I did really well today," Federer was quoted as saying by the tournament's official website. The 24-year-old top seed was playing Tursunov for the first time in their careers and widely acknowledged the Russian's capabilities. "I think especially mentally (its hard playing a guy like that)," said Federer. "You sort of get surprised that he keeps the ball in the court. You think you're gonna not really have much to play with, but actually I think, you know, he's, as far as I'm concerned, really learned to keep the ball in play and know when to go for his shots and so on.”
Andy Roddick of the USA Federer's quarter-final opponent will be in-form James Blake, who beat Argentina's 32nd-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela in three sets. Federer triumphed over the ninth-seeded American in the Indian Wells Masters Series final earlier this month, when he denied him a third title of the season, however Blake still managed to claim a spot amongst the world's top ten for the first time in his career. Meanwhile, 22nd-seeded Mario Ancic shocked fifth-seeded Russian, Nikolay Davydenko 7-5, 6-4 to set up a quarter-final clash with third-seeded David Nalbandian, who ousted 15th-seeded Radek Stepanek. American star and fourth seed Andy Roddick also booked himself a place in the last-eight with a three-set win over German qualifier, Simon Greul. The last three quarter-final spots were claimed by 11th-seeded David Ferrer, sixth-seeded Ivan Lubicic and Argentina's Agustin Calleri.
