Roger Federer produced a near-identical performance to his opening two wins to ease past Julian Reister in round three of the French Open today. Defending champion Federer did not have it all his own way in the first set on Suzanne Lenglen Court, wasting seven break points early on. But he then reeled off nine games in a row on the way to a 6-4 6-0 6-4 win in just one hour 33 minutes, setting up a last-16 clash with the 20th seed Stanislas Wawrinka or Fabio Fognini. Today saw Federer face an opponent who was playing just his fourth event on the main tour, with the German's run to round three the first time he had won back-to-back matches.
The 24-year-old qualifier, who shocked 27th seed Feliciano Lopez in his opening match, made a nervy start to his first meeting with the world number one. But he recovered from 0-40 and 15-40 down in his first two service games to hold and was 4-3 up on serve when it all went horribly wrong. He won just one point in his next four service games as Federer took a stranglehold on proceedings, the German gifting his opponent each one of his breaks. World No 165 Reister stopped the rot by holding his opening two service games in the third set, but Federer broke in game five and that ultimately proved enough. * PA