EMMANUEL B. VILLARUEL • ASST. EDITOR: LEMUEL P. MAGLINTE Federer powers into Basel quarters

Roger Federer won his 17th consecutive match at the Swiss Indoors, dispatching Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3, 7-5 to reach the quarterfinals.

The top seed, unbeaten in Basel since 2013, is an eight-time winner of his home event and will next play Frenchman Gilles Simon, who defeated Latvia's Ernests Gulbis 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/0).

Federer admitted he was not satisfied with his slow start, going down a break in the third game.

“I didn't really get into the game. It's been a long time since I've played a match without being broken.

“I have to improve in the next round.”

The 37-year-old, ranked third in the world, trailed to the early break but soon recovered for 3-all in the opening set.

He then broke for 5-3 before closing out the opener in 27 minutes.

The second set stayed on serve until a fifth double-fault from Struff, which opened the door for Federer to move 6-5 ahead.

Moments later, the 20-time Grand Slam champion served out a 41st victory of the season with a volley into the empty court on his first match point.

“It was a lot of rocky start, I had to clean up my game, I'm happy about that,” Federer said. “There were a lot of quick points - one or two shots max.

“There was no rhythm, it was a sprint on the majority of points. I did a little better than him I guess, that was the goal for today.”

Fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas dominated Peter Gojowczyk 6-3, 6-1 to line up a quarter-final with one of his toughest NextGen rivals.

The Greek will face Russian Daniil Medvedev, who defeated Italy's Andreas Seppi 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 in their second-round encounter.