No Swiss meeting in Milan

Switzerland's Roger Federer is through to the last eight of the Milan Indoors tennis tournament. But a defeat for Michel Kratochvil has ended hopes of an all-Swiss quarter-final.

Federer, who is defending the title which he won in Milan last year, appeared to be cruising through Thursday’s match against Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko (ATP 84), taking the first set 6-3.

But after losing the second set on a tie-break the Swiss world number 13 was forced to dig deep, before eventually coming through 6-3, 6-7, 7-5.

Kratochvil (ATP 43) was widely expected to be Federer’s next opponent at the Italian tournament but the man from Bern suffered a surprise straight sets defeat (4-6, 4-6) at the hands of Armenian world number 74 Sargis Sargsian.

It will now fall to Federer to avenge his Davis Cup team-mate although the 20-year-old from Basel is well aware of Sargsian’s potential.

After losing his first encounter with Sargsian in 1999, Federer only just managed his first win over the Armenian at last year’s French Open, clinching that match 9-7 in the fifth set.

swissinfo with agencies