BASEL (Switzerland), Oct 24: Roger Federer stuttered into the Swiss Indoors quarter-finals, his hometown tournament in Basel, on Thursday after an unexpectedly tough 7-6, 7-6 second-round win over Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen.

Nieminen, the world number 29, came into the match having lost all nine of his previous meetings with Federer and without having taken a set off the Swiss.

He came agonisingly close to breaking that hoodoo on Thursday, however, fighting back from 3-1 down to lead 5-3 in the opening set.

Federer, looking strangely out of sorts throughout the match, even handed his opponent two set points but they proved to be the last with the world number two pulling himself back from the brink with an ace and a forehand winner.

He promptly broke back to level as Nieminen served for the set before squeezing through the subsequent tiebreak 8-6.

Federer seemed back in control after breaking 3-2 ahead in the second set but slipped up again three games later to send the encounter into another tiebreak.

This time though he made no mistakes, winning six points in a row to clinch the tiebreak 7-1.

Federer will now face unseeded Italian Simone Bolelli in the quarter-finals, after the world number 42 won his second-round match against Spain’s Marcel Granollers 6-4, 6-2.

Results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Second round: 1-Roger Federer (Switzerland) bt Jarkko Nieminen (Finland) 7-6(6), 7-6(1); 3-Juan Martin Del Potro (Argentina) bt Stephane Bohli (Switzerland) 6-3, 6-3; 4-James Blake (US) bt Oscar Hernandez (Spain) 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-4; 2-David Nalbandian (Argentina) bt Kristof Vliegen (Belgium) 6-4, 5-7, 7-6(4); Simone Bolelli (Italy) bt Marcel Granollers (Spain) 6-4, 6-2.

MURRAY IN QUARTERS

ST PETERSBURG (Russia): Top seed Andy Murray raced into the quarter-finals of the St Petersburg Open with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Latvian Ernests Gulbis on Thursday.

The in-form Briton, fresh from winning the Madrid Masters on Sunday, put an assured display against the 50th-ranked Gulbis, securing a key break in the eighth game to take the first set.

Murray, who won here last year on his debut appearance in Russia’s second city, then breezed through the second to complete a comfortable victory in just over an hour and stay on course for his second title in two weeks.

The world number four, who dismissed Serbian Viktor Troicki in straight sets in the first round on Wednesday, next faces his compatriot Janko Tipsarevic, a 6-4, 7-6 winner over Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.

Results:

Second round: Mischa Zverev (Germany) bt 4-Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) 7-5, 6-4; 1-Andy Murray (Britain) bt Ernests Gulbis (Latvia) 6-4, 6-2; Victor Hanescu (Romania) bt Mikhail Kukushkin (Kazakhstan) 6-3, 7-6(7); Andrey Golubev (Kazakhstan) bt 8-Marat Safin (Russia) 6-4, 6-2; Janko Tipsarevic (Serbia) beat Jeremy Chardy (France) 6-4, 7-6(3).

IVANOVIC, ZVONAREVA ADVANCE

LINZ (Austria): Top seeds Ana Ivanovic and Vera Zvonareva claimed straight-set victories on Thursday to reach the Linz Open quarter-finals.

Number one seed Ivanovic of Serbia overcame a strong but inconsistent challenge from Austrian left-hander Sybille Bammer to win 6-4, 6-2, while Russia’s Zvonareva took just 53 minutes to defeat Nuria Llagostera Vives of Spain 6-2, 6-0.

Results:

Second round: Alona Bondarenko (Ukraine) bt 4-Patty Schnyder (Switzerland) 6-2, 2-6, 6-1; 5-Nadia Petrova (Russia) bt Katarina Srebotnik (Slovenia) 6-4, 7-6(7); 1-Ana Ivanovic (Serbia) bt Sybille Bammer (Austria) 6-4, 6-2; 6-Marion Bartoli (France) bt Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic) 7-6(4), 1-6, 6-3; 7-Flavia Pennetta (Italy) bt Dominika Cibulkova (Slovakia) 6-3, 6-1; 2-Vera Zvonareva (Russia) bt Nuria Llagostera (Spain) 6-2, 6-0.—Agencies