Federer heads to Australian Open 4th round

MELBOURNE, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- World No. 2 Roger Federer rolled through a straight-set victory Friday in third-round play at the Australian Open.

Federer was pushed to five sets in his second-round match but handled Xavier Malisse 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 Friday in advancing to the fourth round. As in the second round, Federer grabbed the first two sets but, unlike Wednesday, he quickly finished things off.

He won 60 percent of the points in the third set, posting a pair of breaks and losing only seven points in four service games. The third set took just 29 minutes.

Friday's play went nearly to form with No. 19-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka's 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, 6-3 win over 12th-seeded Gael Monfils the only result considered an upset.

Wawrinka had 11 aces and 57 winners in the match. He had Monfils on the defensive, forcing 20 break-point situations over the second and third sets, getting five breaks.

Third-seeded Novak Djokovic moved into the fourth round when 29th-seed Viktor Troicki was unable to come out of the second set because of a stomach problem. Djokovic won the first set 6-2.

Sixth-seeded Tomas Berdych lost his serve just once in a 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) victory over No. 28 Richard Gasquet and Andy Roddick, the No. 8 seed, lost his serve twice in the first set before taking a 2-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2, 6-2 victory over Robin Haase.

Ninth-seeded Fernando Verdasco took out Kei Nishikori 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 and 14th-seeded Nicolas Almagro advanced with a 6-4, 7-6 (10-8) 6-3 win over No. 17 Ivan Ljubicic. Tommy Robredo was the only unseeded player to reach the fourth round in this part of the draw, defeating Sergiy Stakhovsky 5-7, 6-2, 6-4, 6-2.

The fourth-round matches in the lower half of the men's draw will have Federer going against Robredo while Roddick draws Wawrinka. Also Djokovic will be playing Almagro and Berdych is paired against Verdasco.