ATP World Tour No. 3 Novak Djokovic blasted aside Czech Jan Hernych 6-0, 6-0 Thursday at the Davidoff Swiss Indoors Basel to reach his 18th tour-level quarter-final of the season.

The Serbian, who is making his debut at the ATP World Tour 500 tennis tournament, saved all three break points he faced and capitalised on six of the nine break point opportunities he created to race to victory in just 52 minutes. It was the fifth double bagel of the 2009 ATP World Tour season, the most since 2006, and the first in Basel since 1977, when Jeff Borowiak defeated Trey Waltke in the first round.

“It’s hard to talk about a 6-0, 6-0 result," said Djokovic. "The win is what counts. He didn’t play very well today, actually, he made a lot of unforced errors and didn’t put any pressure on me so I just kind of cruised through the match.

“I think I’m in quite good shape. I feel physically and mentally quite good on the court. I didn’t play perfect tennis today; I needed his unforced errors as well. I think his level of performance was very low today."

The 22-year-old Djokovic, who will defend his title at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London later this month, closed on his 70th match win of the season as he improved to an ATP World Tour-best 68-18 mark.

The Belgrade native is bidding for his fourth ATP World Tour title of the season after victories at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships (d. Ferrer), the Serbia Open 2009 (d. Kubot) and the China Open (d. Cilic) in Beijing. He has also finished runner-up at a further five events, including four ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments.

Djokovic next will face sixth-seeded Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, who defeated Finn Jarkko Nieminen 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 to reach the Basel quarter-finals for the second time. He went on to reach the semi-finals in 2006 (l. to Gonzalez).

Marin Cilic kept alive his hopes of qualifying for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals by saving three match points in a third-set tie-break to battle past Viktor Troicki 7-6(7), 6-7(8), 7-6(6) in three hours and one minutes. He next will face fifth seed Radek Stepanek, who is also hopeful of making the season finale in London.

The fourth-seeded Croatian, who is 13th in the year-to-date South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings, has been one of the most in-form players on tour since the US Open, where he reached his first Grand Slam quarter-final by defeating then-World No. 2 Andy Murray before falling to eventual champion Juan Martin del Potro. The right-hander has since finished runner-up at the China Open (l. to Djokovic) in Beijing and the Bank Austria TennisTrophy (l. to Melzer) in Vienna last week.

Swiss wild card Marco Chiudinelli reached the second ATP World Tour quarter-final of his career as he defeated countryman and qualifier Michael Lammer 2-6, 6-3, 6-3. Chiudinelli, who edged out eighth seed Philipp Kohlschreiber in the first round Tuesday, broke serve three times from nine opportunities as he rallied from a set down to clinch victory in two hours and seven minutes.

The 28 year old reached his first quarter-final last month at the PTT Thailand Open (l. to Tsonga) in Bangkok and, after four tour-level appearances in a row, including a third-round showing at the US Open (l. to Davydenko), reached a career-high No. 71 in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings last week.

Chiudinelli next will face Frenchman Richard Gasquet, who rallied from a set down and saved two match points in the second-set tie-break to edge American John Isner 4-6, 7-6(9), 6-2. World No. 57 Gasquet withstood 22 aces to break serve twice from six opportunities in the two-hour, one-minute match. The right-hander is through to his sixth ATP World Tour quarter-final of the season and improved to a 22-14 match record.

Russian qualifier Evgeny Korolev set up a daunting quarter-final clash with top seed and three-time defending champion Roger Federer after knocking out Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 7-6(1) in 71 minutes. Federer won their one previous meeting for the loss of just six games in a best-of-five-set match at the Australian Open earlier this season.