Tennis: Seeded Haas scrapes through

German Tommy Haas narrowly avoided the curse of the top seeds at the Australian Open today.

Seventh seed Haas, the highest remaining seed following Tim Henman’s loss, had to save a match point before beating Switzerland’s Roger Federer 8-6 in a thrilling final set in Melbourne.

Haas now faces Chilean Marcelo Rios, unseeded this year, but a former world number one.

Federer, two sets to one up, lost the fourth set 6-4, had his match point at 6-5 in the fifth, but netted a backhand and Haas, after holding serve, broke in the next game to 15.

Rios, currently ranked only 48th after a series of injuries, defeated 23rd seed Nicolas Lapentti 7-5 6-1 6-4.

Lapentti, from Ecuador, had come from two sets down to win his previous match against Argentinian Gustavo Gaudio, but in another all-South American battle Rios refused to relinquish his grip.

Runner-up to Czech Petr Korda in 1998, Rios is through to his first Grand Slam quarter-final for three years - as is Haas.