Djokovic advances into Cincinnati Masters quarter-finals

Novak Djokovic of Serbia celebrates his win against David Goffin of Belgium at Lindner Family Tennis Centre in Cincinnati, Ohio. (AFP/Ronald Martinez)

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CINCINNATI, Ohio - Novak Djokovic continued his quest for a first title at the Cincinnati Masters on Thursday while Roger Federer kept alive his bid for a sixth as both booked quarter-final spots.

The contrast between the wins could not have been more stark, with top seed Djokovic crushing Belgian qualifier David Goffin 6-2, 6-0 in well under an hour.

Federer, seeded fifth and the winner here a year ago on the fast hardcourt where he thrives, had to rally from the depths after a disaster of an opening set, finally subduing good friend Tommy Haas 1-6, 7-5, 6-3.

The Swiss star has gone back to his traditional racquet at least through the US Open after experimenting without much success last month with a larger, more modern model.

He said he needed to go back to basics to pull off his 12th win from 15 meetings with Haas, who was seeded 11th.,

"I wasn't playing great in the first set, I needed to clean up my game from the baseline," said Federer, a crowd favorite at the venue. "I'm happy to be through to have another match.

"Sometimes on fast courts it's tough to get rhythm, you are thinking of too many things. I had to simplify my game in order to win."

Federer will wait for an opponent form longtime rival and last week's Montreal champion Rafael Nadal, winner of eight titles from 11 events this season, and Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.

Russian qualifier Dmitry Tursunov upset third seed David Ferrer 6-2, 6-4. The Spaniard has won just one match in two Masters events over the past fortnight.

In other third-round results, Argentine Juan Martin del Potro beat Spain's Feliciano Lopez 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 while American John Isner defeated 12th seed Milos Raonic 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 with the Canadian treated for shoulder and neck problems after five games.

On the women's side of the combined WTA and ATP event, second seed Victoria Azarenka won a match littered with 13 breaks of serve, defeating Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova 6-3, 6-4.

"I think it was a pretty good match, there was sometimes a little bit of trouble serving, but overall I felt better than I did in my first match," said Azarenka. "I was much more controlling the game. It was really up to me today, I felt.

"I was doing everything I wanted to do. I feel still there can be a lot more improvement with the execution and a little bit more consistency, but it's coming along."

Roberta Vinci claimed an Italian showdown with sixth seed Sara Errani 6-4, 6-3 while former number one Jelena Jankovic beat American Sloane Stephens 3-6, 7-5, 7-5.