Rotterdam, Feb 15: Defending champion Roger Federer gave up just one break point as he swept aside Thiemo de Bakker 6-3, 6-4 Thursday to reach the quarterfinals of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament.
The 17-time Grand Slam champion was never seriously troubled in front of the 123rd-ranked Dutchman's home crowd at Ahoy arena.
Federer set the tone early when he broke De Bakker to love in the fourth game. His only minor glitch was serving back-to-back double faults to squander two set points in the ninth game, but he hit back with two big serves to take the set.
He followed it up by breaking De Bakker again in the next game, the Dutchman hitting an easy chance into the net to drop his serve.
"I'm happy. Things are obviously pretty quick indoors," Federer said after winning in just over an hour. "Thiemo can serve well and he is very talented, so it is a good victory for me."
Federer now faces Frenchman Julien Benneteau in the quarterfinals.
Juan Martin del Potro hit a dozen aces past Ernests Gulbis of Latvia in winning 7-6 (5), 6-3 to reach his first quarterfinal of the year.
The second-seeded Argentine set up a clash against Jarkko Nieminen, who beat Matthias Bachinger of Germany 6-3, 5-7, 6-3.
Marcos Baghdatis beat fourth-seeded Richard Gasquet 6-4, 6-4 to also reach the last eight.
The unseeded Cypriot saved three break points and broke Gasquet once to take the first set, and had few problems in the second set as he moved into a quarterfinal against Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria.
