Federer and Nadal move to Qatar quarterfinals
Swiss tennis star Roger Federer and his Spanish rival, Rafael Nadal, overcame difficult sets on Wednesday to make it to the Qatar Open quarterfinals.
Federer needed a strong baseline game to overcome fellow Swiss Marco Chiudinelli 7-6 (5), 7-5.
Nadal, the world’s number one ranked player, beat Lukas Lacko of Slovakia 7-6 (3), 0-6, 6-3. It was the tenth time in the Spaniard’s decorated career that he lost a set in six games straight.
Federer, the world’s number two, said facing another Swiss was challenging.
“It was an up and down match. I was a bit confused and lost focus, but I did well to concentrate better as the game went on,” Federer said. “It’s not easy to play (Chiudinelli) because we know each other’s game quite well. But I am happy to advance here.”
Chiudinelli broke Federer in the fourth game but the Swiss rebounded and broke his opponent twice to earn the win.
On Thursday Federer will play Viktor Troicki of Serbia. The winner of the Qatar Open pockets $177,000. The hard court tournament in Doha is seen as a warm-up for the Australian Open.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.