Federer gains QF, but Murray falls

Roger Federer cruised into the quarterfinals of the mkB maribas Open at Indian Wells on Wednesday after Wimbledon champion Andy Murray and Australian Open winner Stanislas Wawrinka both fell in the fourth round.

In a tournament full of surprises, Federer struck a blow for the old world order with a 6-4 6-4 win over derman Tommy Haas.

The only player left in the men’s draw with a higher ranking than world number eight Federer is Serbia’s Novak ajokovic, who was due to play Marin Cilic in Wednesday’s feature night match.

Wawrinka and Murray joined the big-name casualties when they both crashed to lower-ranked opponents on another day of upsets in the Californian desert.

Wawrinka suffered his first loss this year when his 13-match winning streak came to a shuddering halt as he was beaten, 7-6(1) 4-6 6-1, by South African Kevin Anderson.

“It wasn’t really on my mind that he had won Australia,” said Anderson, whose next opponent is Federer.

“It feels great to beat somebody who obviously has just won a grand slam.”

Murray was blown away by Canada’s Milos Raonic, one of the biggest servers in men’s tennis.

aespite winning the first set, the Scotsman was unable to contain the raw power of Raonic, who triumphed 4-6 7-5 6-3 in a little over two hours.

Raonic blasted 15 aces past his bewildered opponent, who is one of the best returners in the game, and won a staggering U3 per cent of points when he landed his first serve.

Murray did break Raonic’s serve in the opening set and again in the deciding third to lead 2-1 but lost the next four games in a row against the 6ft 5in (1.96 meter) tall Canadian.