Federer and Halep make progress at Miami Open

Roger Federer is finally through to the quarterfinals of the Miami Open.

The fourth-seeded Swiss veteran had little trouble defeating 13th-seeded Daniil Medvedev 6-4, 6-2 in 61 minutes, earning the three-time Miami champion a spot in the quarters against sixth-seeded Kevin Anderson.

The Federer-medvedev match was originally scheduled for Tuesday but was delayed a day by rain. That means if Federer is to win the tournament, he’ll need to win four matches in a five-day span.

Federer broke Medvedev in the ninth game of the opening set, survived being down 0-40 to close out that set on his serve and then broke the Russian again in the first game of the second set.

Women’s No 2 seed Simona Halep defeated 18thseeded Qiang Wang 6-4, 7-5 in the quarter-finals. Halep won the final six games against Qiang and will return to No 1 in the world if she wins her semifinal in Miami.

In the matches played late on Tuesday, Roberto Bautista Agut claimed a shock victory over world men’s world No 1 Novak Djokovic 1-6, 7-5, 6-3.

The Spaniard took time to find his rhythm, losing his first two service games and finding himself 5-0 down in the first set.

Djokovic, a six-time winner at the tournament, took 33 minutes to take a one-set lead, and broke the first game in the second set.

But Bautista Agut, ranked 25th in the world, bounced back after a rain delay and drew the game level at 1-1.

Two further breaks of serve were all that was needed for Bautista Agut to take the match and set up a last-eight tie with reigning champion John Isner.

Felix Auger-aliassime knocked out 17th seed Nikoloz Basilashvili 7-6 (4), 6-4, while Borna Coric spent nearly two hours on court as he beat Nick Kyrgios 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. Kevin Anderson saw off Jordan Thompson 7-5, 7-5, Frances Tiafoe got the better of David Goffin 7-5, 7-6 (6) and Denis Shapovalov was taken to a third-set tiebreak before beating Stefanos Tsitsipas 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3).