Roger Federer continued to fine tune his grasscourt game for Wimbledon with a 51-minute victory over Colombian Alejandro Falla yesterday earning a quarter-final place at the Halle Open. The 16-times grand slam champion, who has won the Wimbledon warm-up event five times but skipped it last year, barely broke sweat in a comfortable 6-1, 6-2 win. Federer, who lost his world No 1 ranking to Rafael Nadal after being beaten in the quarter-finals of the French Open last week, faces Philipp Kohlschreiber next after the German put out the Swiss player Marco Chiudinelli 6-4, 7-5.
French Open semi-finalist Juergen Melzer, seeded sixth, suffered a shock 3-6. 7-6, 7-6 defeat by young German Mischa Zverev. Former Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt went through with a 6-3, 6-3 defeat of Dutchman Thiemo de Bakker. Meanwhile at the Aegon Championships in London, top seed Rafael Nadal progressed through to the quarter-final with a 7-6, 6-6, 6-4 victory over Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin.
Andy Roddick, a four-times winner at Queens, however, suffered a shock third round defeat at the hands of Israeli Dudi Sela. Sela triumphed 6-4, 7-6 over the big serving fourth seed to set-up a quarter-final clash with the German Rainer Schuettler, who received a bye to the last eight after scheduled opponent Richard Gasquet forfeited their match because of a knee injury. Fifth seed Marin Cilic also went out, losing in straight sets to 12th seed Michael Llodra.
* Agencies