Defeated Federer hails Canas

Roger Federer praised Guillermo Canas after the Argentinian defeated the world number one for the second time in as many weeks in the fourth round of the Sony Ericsson Open.

Canas followed up his victory in the Pacific Life Open earlier this month with a thrilling 7-6 (7-2) 2-6 7-6 (7-5) win.

It had looked like Federer would exact revenge for his earlier defeat to Canas as he recovered from a disappointing first set to breeze to a 6-2 win in the second before taking a 3-0 lead in the third.

But Canas fought back to force a tie-break before snatching victory and though naturally disappointed with the defeat, Federer had no complaints with his own performance.

The 25-year-old said: “I was in total control for almost all the match, and once I broke back in the first set. I was really happy with my level of play. I thought it was a great match, so it was disappointing to lose, of course.

“He’s (Canas) a great competitor. He scrambles back so many balls and doesn’t miss much, and then he moves the ball around very well. He really improved his backhand, his serve. They weren’t that good a couple years ago, so that just tightened up his game a lot.

“I guess he played well against me both times, and I couldn’t put him away unfortunately,” Federer added on atptennis.com.

Canas will face Tommy Robredo in the last eight.

Ivan Ljubicic defeated Jarkko Nieminen 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 to reach the quarter-finals.

The victory was the Croat‘s 300th career match win and he has now reached back-to-back ATP Masters Series quarter-finals after making it to that stage at the Pacific Life Open.

Argentina’s Juan Ignacio Chela continued his fine form as he eased to a 6-3 6-2 win over American qualifier Amer Delic.