Former Champion Djokovic Beats Kubot; Roddick Sets Federer QF

© Getty ImagesNovak Djokovic has a 66-3 match record in 2011.

World No. 1 and former champion Novak Djokovic cruised into the Swiss Indoors Basel quarter-finals on Thursday when he beat Polish qualifier Lukasz Kubot 6-1, 6-2 to set up a meeting with Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis.

"It’s great to play well again," said Djokovic, who had been tested by Xavier Malisse on Tuesday in his first match since returning from a lower back injury. "I think I did play well at the start of the first match, and then I had big ups and down throughout the match. I had a lot of unforced errors and double faults at important moments, but it was kind of expected because it was the first match after six weeks after a big injury - probably the biggest in my career. Today is another story. I felt good on the court and I’m happy to go through."

Djokovic, the 2009 titlist (d. Federer) and 2010 runner-up, won the first set in 26 minutes, dropping just four of 20 points on serve and converting two of four break point opportunities. The 24-year-old Serbian lost five points in winning the first four games of the second set, before Kubot hit four winners to break Djokovic's streak of games. Minutes later, Djokovic improved to 4-0 lifetime against the World No. 64 with a hold to 15 to wrap up victory in 55 minutes.

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He improved to a 66-3 match record on the season (42-2 on hard courts) and to 11-1 lifetime in Basel, an ATP World Tour 500 indoor tennis tournament. Djokovic has won 10 of his 28 tour-level titles this year.

"It’s a great tournament, obviously very strong main draw that we have, a lot of top players coming out; this year five of the Top 8 were playing in the tournament," he said. "It’s great attendance. People really appreciate and love tennis in Basel."

American Andy Roddick, the No. 7 seed, kept his Barclays ATP World Tour Finals bid alive after rallying past Czech Radek Stepanek 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 in one hour and 43 minutes. Roddick, who capitalised on four of his five break points, gains another 45 points for his victory; he is currently No. 16 in the South African Airways 2011 ATP Year-To-Date Rankings, more than 1,000 points back of Mardy Fish in the No. 8 position.

Roddick will next face four-time champion Roger Federer, whom he last played in the semi-finals of this tournament in 2010. The 30-year-old Swiss leads the FedEx ATP Head 2 Head 20-2, with Roddick's two wins coming in 2003 at the Rogers Cup in Montreal and in 2008 at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.

"I was frustrated that I didn’t get more first serves in court [in the first set], but regardless of how badly you play in set one, it’s still only one set and I just tried to remind himself of that and luckily I played better in the last two," said Roddick, reflecting on his second-round win. "I thought he had a pretty good serving day, so to be able to break four times was good for me. Obviously it’s a tall order [against Federer], but I’ll go out there and give it a go and hopefully come out on top."

The American is playing his first tournament since the death of his manager, Ken Meyerson, on 19 October. "It’s certainly not easy," he said. "You go back to, 'what would he have wanted me to do?' and he was always up for me playing. That’s what he enjoyed. I think the easiest times I’ve had are where my mind is occupied with something. It’s those times when you’re not doing anything that it’s hard. This obviously occupies my mind a little bit."   

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Swiss No. 2 Stanislas Wawrinka advanced with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 win over Dutchman Robin Haase, converting four of his 17 break point chances during the two hour, eight-minute match. The World No. 19 is through to the quarter-finals for the third time at his home country tournament, also reaching this stage in 2006 and '10.

"It’s always a lot of pressure when you start a match because you want to play good, you want to stay in the tournament and play a lot of matches," he said of playing on home soil, "but then you need to just stay focused on your game and try to play your best match possible."

Earlier in the day, Japanese wild card Kei Nishikori continued his impressive fall season by beating Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-3, 7-6(4) in one hour and 47 minutes. Nishikori will face lucky loser Mikhail Kukushkin, who defeated James Blake, a player he lost to in the final round of qualifying, 6-3, 6-4.

"I would like to maintain my Top 30 ranking and eventually get into the Top 20," said Nishikori. "I am working hard on my serve and physical conditioning."

Florian Mayer snapped a three-match losing streak against Ivan Ljubicic with his first win over the Croatian 6-3, 6-1 in one hour.

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