Federer, Murray advance at Indian Wells

Roger Federer and Andy Murray edged closer to a semi-final clash at the Indian Wells hardcourt tennis tournament Wednesday, each booking his quarter-final berth.

World No.2 Federer, playing his first tournament since falling in a five-set thriller to Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open final, got past Chilean Fernando Gonzalez 6-3, 5-7, 6-2.

Fourth-seeded Murray had an easier than expected time, reaching the quarters as fourth-round opponent Tommy Robredo retired with an injured right wrist as Murray led 6-2, 3-0.

Federer, who has spent the time since the Australian Open recovering from a lingering back ailment and getting in some quality practice, said he enjoyed his tussle with Gonzalez, the 2007 Australian Open runner-up who captured his 11th career title at Vina del Mar earlier this year.

After coming through his third-round match with big-serving Croatian Ivo Karlovic, Federer said he was glad to have a match he could get his teeth into.

"I enjoy playing Fernando because it's so tactical, but then at the same time it's so brutal, so aggressive. You think you have a slight chance to win the point, and then you realize no, there's actually none."

Despite the difficulties, Federer stretched his record over Gonzalez to 12-1, and lined up a quarter-final clash that promised another test of his ground game against Spain's Fernando Verdasco.

Verdasco, who powered to the semi-finals of the Australian Open where he was felled by Nadal, defeated unseeded German Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.

Like Federer, Murray arrived in California after some time off, having withdrawn after reaching the quarter-finals in Dubai two weeks ago and then skipping the Davis Cup because of a virus.

Murray had lost to Robredo in their last two encounters and got off to a slow start, dropping his serve to trail 1-2.

"Because I haven't played that much, I'm sort of trying to work my way into the match by making a lot of balls early on," Murray said. "Tommy was able to dictate a lot of points. That wasn't through my errors. He had a couple of big returns and got ahead of me. After that I started to play a little bit more aggressive."

Murray said he knew Robredo was battling a wrist injury, but said it was hard to gauge how much his opponent was bothered by it.

"He was serving well and hitting his forehand hard," Murray said.

"But," he added, "mentally a wrist problem can be tough. It's not so much hitting the ball that's worrying, it's just the pain that's there and feeling like something might happen."

Murray next faces Croatian veteran Ivan Ljubicic, who defeated Russian Igor Andreev 4-6, 7-6 7/5, 7-6 7/4 in a match lasting more than three hours.

Nadal was the star attraction of the night session, taking on Argentina's David Nalbandian in a fourth-round clash.

Nadal hasn't won a set from Nalbandian in two prior career meetings, both in 2007.

Fourth-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva booked a semi-final berth with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over ninth-seeded Dane Caroline Wozniacki.







Norton Bay, March 16, in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. AP/Al Grillo