Federer into quarter-finals

Top seed Roger Federer was relieved to have a straightforward passage into the quarter-finals of the Pacific Life Open after a tough start to the season.

The Swiss dispatched unseeded Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 6-1 6-1 on Tuesday for a second consecutive straight-sets victory.

"I enjoy matches like this," Federer said. "For me, having a sensation like I had today towards the end of the second set, when you feel everything's going your way, you've got his game perfectly figured out and everything you're trying to do sort of works as well, it's just a good feeling."

The win may also help to silence talk of the 26-year-old being past his prime.

Federer has endured a rocky start to the year having not won a title in the first two months of a season since 2000.

The win on Tuesday was his second here after a surprising opening-round loss to Andy Murray two weeks ago in Dubai when the world number one revealed he had suffered from glandular fever at the start of the year.

Against Mahut, Federer won 96% (23-of-24) of his first-serve points and had a nine aces in a match that lasted just 53 minutes.

"I think this is what you want to do when you try to run over your opponent," Federer said.

"Not give him a chance. I was really happy to break that often and had no problems whatsoever on my own serve. It was a perfect match, really, for me."

The winner of three straight titles here from 2004-06, Federer will next face Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, who ousted 15th seed Tommy Robredo 6-3 6-4. The Swiss has an eight-match winning streak against Ljubicic.

Also advancing in one of eight third-round matches was seventh seed David Nalbandian, who held off Czech Radek Stepanek 7-6 (7/1) 0-6 7-6 (8/6).

The win extended the Argentine's winning streak at ATP Masters Series events to 14 straight matches.

Nalbandian will take on Juan Carlos Ferrero, who outlasted wild card Mario Ancic 7-5 4-6 7-6 (7/5).

Lleyton Hewitt, the 24th seed who won here in 2002 and 2003, posted a 7-5 6-1 victory over Mikhail Youzhny of Russia.

The 27-year-old Australian, who was also a finalist in 2005, next will meet unseeded American Mardy Fish, a 6-3 6-2 winner over Nikolay Davydenko.

In the final two matches on Tuesday, unseeded German Tommy Haas eliminated 30th seed Fernando Verdasco of Spain 7-6 4-6 6-1 and the 11th-seeded Murray of Britain topped world number 20 Ivo Karlovic of Croatia 7-6 6-7 6-3.