Cruise for red-hot Federer as six-in-a-row looms

ROGER FEDERER moved closer to a sixth successive US Open crown after stifling Spanish 14th seed Tommy Robredo 7-5 6-2 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals last night.

The Swiss world number one took a while to warm up as clouds gathered over Arthur Ashe Stadium but once he had the first set in the bag, Federer wasted little time putting Robredo into the shade and secured his ninth straight win over the Spaniard.

Federer, winner of a record 15 grand slam titles, sealed victory with his ninth ace in one hour 48 minutes.

Federer next plays Sweden’s Robin Soderling, whom the Swiss beat en route to the French Open and Wimbledon titles this year.

Eighth seed Nikolay Davydenko hobbled out of the tournament after a thigh strain forced him to retire midway through his fourth round match against Roland Garros runner-up Robin Soderling.

The Swede became the first man to reach the quarter-finals when Davydenko shook his head and informed the umpire he could not continue at the end of the third set.

The retirement would also have been a relief for Soderling, who had suffered a dizzy spell during the 7-5 3-6 6-2 win.

Asked to describe his injury, Davydenko said: “Just some muscle problem, like groin muscle maybe. We don’t know yet.

“In the middle of second set I felt something painful in the muscle, and every point I have more and more pain.”

American Melanie Oudin continued her remarkable run with a 1-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 win over Nadia Petrova to book a place in the last eight.

It seemed that luck had run out for the 17-year-old after she lost the first set 6-1 to the 13th seed Russian.

But back came Oudin to win the next 7-2 on the tie-break and then led Petrova by two breaks in the final set to record another famous victory.

Meanwhile, later today, Marin Cilic will try to strike an early blow for Croatian pride against British opposition when he takes on Andy Murray for a place in the US Open quarter-finals.

“I didn’t get a chance to watch them play Belarus but hopefully I’ll see them on Wednesday,” Cilic said.

Cilic will go from hot favourite to underdog when he faces Murray.

The 20-year-old Croatian underscored his 16th seed status over Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin on Sunday night, cruising to a straight sets win over the world 108.

However the tall 20-year-old now knows he has some giant-killing of his own to do if he is to beat the hotly tipped Murray and reach the last eight.

Murray has won all three of their previous meetings, being taken to five sets on grass in Davis Cup two years ago, winning in straight sets on hardcourts in Madrid in 2008 and again on clay at Roland Garros in the French Open fourth round this June.