Tennis:Roger Federer brushed aside Jurgen Melzer to seal his place in the quarter-finals of the US Open. The Swiss, who hasn't lost a set at this year's tournament, will now meet Sweden's Robin Soderling in the last eight after the fifth seed came from a set down to beat Spain's Albert Montanes 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-3.
Second seed Federer was a 6-3 7-6 (7/4) 6-3 winner in the second night match at Flushing Meadows, where his all-round quality proved too much for 13th-seed Melzer. The result was in no doubt from the moment he made the first of two opening-set breaks in the fourth game.
He repeated his three-set victory in the same stage at Wimbledon, needing a tie-break to go 2-0 up but taking the third in style with a delightful forehand winner.
Federer leads Soderling 12-1 in head-to-head but lost their last match at the French Open this year, ending his run of 23 consecutive Grand Slam semi-finals.
"I expect it to be really tough, especially now that he's gotten a taste of how to beat me," said Federer. "It's up to me to clean up my game and put in a good performance.
"He's been able to string together a few good years now on the tour. Before he was very good already, but he was a bit up and down. Maybe that's also maybe why his ranking was a bit lower.
"Now he is playing really well.
"Little things can have a huge impact - just growing up, too. It took me a long time to figure out that staying calm was going to be better for my game than not. I only realised that at about 20 years old."
As for his own plans against Soderling, Federer was clear.
"Like against any big server you try to read the serve, get into good baseline rallies, try to move him around, just play a solid match and have no hiccups on your own serve.
"I've been able to do that 12 times out of 13," he said. "So it's a matter up to me now if I can do it again."
Soderling admitted after his victory was looking forward to testing himself against Federer again, stating: "It's always a very nice feeling to play against the world's best - it's matches like that you train for.
"It's matches like that I've been dreaming of playing since I started playing tennis, playing at the big courts in the big tournaments. It's very fun.
"I've played Roger many times. I know his game and he knows mine. I'm pretty sure how I need to play to have a chance to win but it's going to be extremely difficult."