Federer in, Stan out on mixed day for Swiss players
Roger Federer survived a stern test from Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut to reach the Miami Open quarterfinals on Tuesday, while top-seeded Swiss compatriot Stan Wawrinka was eliminated on his birthday.
Federer clinched the 7-6(5), 7-6(4) victory on his third match point, shortly after Wawrinka fell 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 to 16th-seeded German teenager Alexander Zverev.
Bautista Agut played the match of his life, hitting the ball deep with relentless precision in an effort to keep Federer pinned to the baseline, giving the 18-times grand slam champion everything he could handle.
But Federer’s class proved the difference in the tiebreaks as he improved to 6-0 lifetime against Bautista Agut and advanced to a showdown against Czech 10th seed Tomas Berdych.
Wawrinka, who turned 32 on Tuesday, lost to Federer in the Indian Wells final nine days ago and was denied a chance of setting up a possible rematch in Miami.
Fifth seed Rafa Nadal won in straight sets, but had to work hard to beat Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 6-4 7-6(4).
Next up for Nadal is American Jack Sock, while Nishikori meets Italian Fabio Fognini. Czech second-seed Karolina Pliskova will face Caroline Wozniacki in the semifinals of the Miami Open after the pair triumphed on Tuesday at Key Biscayne.
A confident Pliskova ended the hopes of Croat veteran Mirjana Lucic-Baroni with a 6-3, 6-4 win while Wozniacki made sure there would be no all-Czech semifinal by dispatching Lucie Safarova 6-4. 6-3.
The win was sweet revenge for Pliskova who had lost to the Croat in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in January.