Federer fights back to defeat Istomin

RogerFederer

Federer has reached the last eight finals at his home tournament and remains on course to make it nine in a row after seeing off a determined challenge from Istomin to win 3-6 6-3 6-4. 

Istomin had lost in each of his previous five encounters with Federer, including at the same stage of last year's competition in Basel, when he also won the first set. 

The Uzbekistani briefly looked like pulling off a shock win but again he could not turn his strong start into a victory as an aggressive performance from Federer, in which he hit 40 winners and won 23 of 32 net points, saw the top seed through.

Federer will face Grigor Dimitrov in the last eight after the Bulgarian fifth seed overcame Vasek Pospisil 6-2 6-2 in Thursday's last match.

Milos Raonic continued his quest for a place at the ATP World Tour Finals by overcoming American Donald Young in three sets, the Canadian surviving a scare before emerging victorious 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (7-2) after two hours and 18 minutes.

Unsurprisingly it was Raonic's serve that proved decisive in the fourth seed's tight triumph as he knocked down 22 aces to set up a last-eight clash with Belgium's David Goffin.

Another big server to triumph was eighth seed Ivo Karlovic, who racked up 18 aces to beat French qualifier Kenny de Schepper 6-7 (6-8) 6-4 6-3 and reach the quarter-finals for the second straight tournament with the Croatian having done the same at the Vienna Open last week.

Karlovic will take on Germany's Benjamin Becker after his second-round opponent Mikhail Kukushkin retired in the final set, the Kazakhstani conceding defeat with Becker leading 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (7-4) 4-0 in the decider. 

Elsewhere in the draw, Karlovic's compatriot and 17-year-old wildcard Borna Coric booked a meeting with world number three Rafael Nadal by beating Andrey Golubev 6-4 6-4.

"I'm very happy with my game. I wasn't getting nervous. It really feels good and it's going to help me with my ranking. It's a huge step for me," Coric said."I think it's going to be a great match [against Nadal].

"He's an unbelievable tennis player. It's a privilege to play against him. I hope I can play as best as I can and we'll see what happens."

Author(s)