Fed cruises into quarters

Federer: Soderling next up for Swiss

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Roger Federer eased past Jurgen Melzer in straight sets to book a quarter-final clash with Robin Soderling at the US Open.

The second seed emerged an emphatic 6-3 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 winner in the second night match at Flushing Meadows, with his all-round quality proving too much for 13th-seed Melzer.

Federer, who has not missed a grand slam quarter since the 2004 French Open, is looking for his sixth win at the event and was not called upon to produce his very best form against Melzer.

Indeed, from the moment he secured the first of two first-set breaks in the fourth game of the contest he was always in control of proceedings.

The Swiss repeated his three-set victory in the same stage at Wimbledon, needing a tie-break to go 2-0 up but taking the third in style with a delightful forehand winner.

Federer will now meet Swede Soderling in the last eight after the fifth seed came from a set down to beat Spain's Albert Montanes 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-3.

Federer leads Soderling 12-1 in head-to-head but lost their last match at the French Open this year, ending his run of 23 consecutive Grand Slam semi-finals.

Tough

"I expect it to be really tough, especially now that he's gotten a taste of how to beat me," said Federer.

"It's up to me to clean up my game and put in a good performance.

"He's been able to string together a few good years now on the tour. Before he was very good already, but he was a bit up and down. Maybe that's also maybe why his ranking was a bit lower.

"Now he is playing really well.

"Little things can have a huge impact - just growing up, too.

"It took me a long time to figure out that staying calm was going to be better for my game than not. I only realised that at about 20 years old."

As for his own plans for tackling Soderling, he continued: "Like against any big server you try to read the serve, get into good baseline rallies, try to move him around, just play a solid match and have no hiccups on your own serve.

"I've been able to do that 12 times out of 13.

"So it's a matter up to me now if I can do it again."

Soderling on song

Against Montanes, Soderling only faced one break point which Montanes converted to win the first set.

However, from that point Soderling grew into the game and dominated the next three sets, breaking Montanes five times on his way to a comfortable victory.

The Swede admitted afterwards he was looking forward to testing himself against Federer again, stating: "It's always a very nice feeling to play against the world's best - it's matches like that you train for.

"It's matches like that I've been dreaming of playing since I started playing tennis, playing at the big courts in the big tournaments. It's very fun.

"I've played Roger many times. I know his game and he knows mine. I'm pretty sure how I need to play to have a chance to win but it's going to be extremely difficult."