Federer retains hopes of ending Djokovic’s fine run

Federer beat Swiss compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3 6-2 7-5 while Djokovic made it 41 wins for the year and 43 in a row in total by brushing aside Richard Gasquet 6-4 6-4 6-2.

Both were somewhat upstaged by Djokovic’s next opponent Fabio Fognini, though, after he saved five match points and defied injury to beat Albert Montanes 4-6 6-4 3-6 6-3 11-9.

Victory for Djokovic over the Italian would see him tie John McEnroe’s record start to a season from 1984 of 42 straight wins, while he would also only be two away from Guillermo Vilas’s all-time record of 46 victories.

Federer registered his ninth win from 10 matches against Wawrinka, who also lost to his friend at the same stage at Roland Garros last year and in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in January.

Wawrinka had fought back from two sets down to beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Friday and he looked set to mount another comeback when he went a break up at the start of the third yesterday, but Federer was having none of it.

The 29-year-old said: “I’m very happy with the way it went. I knew the danger coming into this match on clay. I still think it is his best surface, even though maybe it’s been somewhat of a disappointing clay-court season for him.”

Federer set his own record by reaching a 28th consecutive grand slam quarter-final, breaking the mark he jointly held with Jimmy Connors – although the American missed a number of Australian and French Opens.

With his win over Juan Martin Del Potro on Saturday, Djokovic moved past Federer’s best unbeaten run of 41 matches from 2006-07.

Giving an insight into the Serb’s mindset, Federer said: “I think you definitely feel invincible at times. But in a knockout system like we have in tennis, you’re never quite sure.

“The trickier part is all of a sudden you think ‘I’m winning so much, eventually somebody’s going to snap that streak’. When everybody started to talk about it, the more likely it was going to happen. It’s kind of tough to keep your head down and just focus.”

Wawrinka insisted he does still believe he can beat Federer, saying: “I don’t think it’s a mental thing. (Yesterday) I felt I was not playing a bad match. There was even a time when I felt I played well, but it just was not enough.”

Fognini looked down and out on a number of occasions during his four-hour 22-minute match against Montanes, trailing by a break in the decider and then receiving treatment to his left leg in the 14th game when he was only two points from defeat.

The Italian was clearly struggling but Montanes could not take advantage of match points at 8-7 or 9-8 and he was then broken before Fognini, in the fourth round of a grand slam for the first time, served out a remarkable win.

He admitted he could be struggling to be fit to face Djokovic, though, saying: “I believed it was cramp but it is not cramp. At the moment I am in a lot of pain. I really don’t know what will happen.

“I’m happy because I’m in the quarter-finals but I’m very tired. Of course I should have lost this match. But tennis is a sport where anything can happen.”

Montanes seemed annoyed by Fognini’s use of the trainer at such a crucial point, but he declined to criticise the Italian afterwards, saying: “Everybody does what they have to do.

“Everybody plays their game. He played really well. I’d like to congratulate him and wish him all the best for the matches to come.”

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova reached the quarter-finals of a grand slam for the first time with a 7-6 (7/4) 2-6 6-2 victory over third seed and fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva. It was an impressive performance from the 19-year-old, who at 15th in the rankings is officially the world’s best teenager, as she fought back from breaks down in both the first and third sets.

Pavlyuchenkova, whose previous best run was to the fourth round of the US Open last year, proved by far the steadier and she clinched victory on her third match point after two hours and 27 minutes.

Pavlyuchenkova will play defending champion Francesca Schiavone in the quarter-finals after the Italian came through a topsy-turvy encounter with Jelena Jankovic 6-3 2-6 6-4.

Schiavone made a flying start, moving 5-1 ahead, but it was a sign of things to come when Jankovic picked up a couple of games before the fifth seed served out the set.

The roles were reversed in the second when Jankovic took an early advantage, wobbled, and then pulled away again to level. All the games were close and it really was anybody’s match going into the decider.

Schiavone made the first move by breaking for a 3-2 lead but Jankovic, who was looking for a fourth semi-final appearance in five years at Roland Garros, promptly hit straight back.

When she lost her serve in the ninth game, though, there was no way back, with Schiavone finally bringing the contest to a conclusion after two hours and 38 minutes and then kneeling down to kiss the clay, as she had after her triumph last year.

French 11th seed Marion Bartoli became the third player through to the quarter-finals when opponent Gisela Dulko retired early in the second set.

The Argentinian, who beat last year’s finalist Samantha Stosur in the third round, received treatment to her left thigh early in the match and then again after Bartoli had won the opening set 7-5.

But she played only one game of the second, in which it was clear her movement was severely inhibited, before calling it a day.

The victory put Bartoli, through to the last eight at her home grand slam for the first time.