Federer leads top three in clean sweep in Rotterdam

By Bill Scott Feb 17, 2012, 20:41 GMT

Rotterdam, Netherlands - Roger Federer led a quarter-final sweep of the top three seeds at the ABN-AMRO World Tennis on Friday as he defeated Finn Jarkko Nieminen for a 13th time.

The Swiss top seed advanced 7-5, 7-6 (7-2) in 90 minutes to next face Russian veteran Nikolay Davydenko, who came back from 5-2 down in the first set to stun French fifth seed Richard Gasquet 7-5, 6-3.

The Federer match was close between the pair of 30-year-olds who are ultra-familiar with each other's games and styles.

Nieminen won the Sydney title in January but suffered an abdominal muscle injury at the Australian Open.

Federer closed out victory in the tiebreaker to advance. 'I played well on my serve but Jarkko made me work,' said the winner. 'I played a solid match.'

'Jarkko did his job well, he's a good friend of mine and a good guy, always very fair.

'I've got a good record against him but every time he makes you work. It was a relief to come through. I'm one more match into the tournament and I'm playing better as time goes by.'

Second seed Tomas Berdych and number three Juan Del Potro stormed into final four earlier with thundering victories.

Berdych, who a year ago had to withdraw from his quarter-final at the Ahoy stadium due to a fever and hand over the win to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, reached the last four this time around with his defeat of Italy's Andreas Seppi 6-3, 6-4.

Del Potro continued to impress in his debut at the event as he unleashed his lethal game on seventh seed Viktor Troicki 6-0, 6-1.

The Argentine won the first eight games before Troicki got a look in, but that was it for the Serb as Del Potro romped home unchallenged.

The South American who won the 2009 US Open and then suffered a 2010 wrist injury and needed a year of more after surgery and rehab, moved through in 61 minutes to next face Berdych. The pair are 2-2 in their series, with the Argentine winning the last two they played in 2009.

Berdych, who won his eighth indoor match of the season, was bothered by the one game he lost on serve in the second set.

The quest for a perfect showing may have been damaged, but the Czech immediately recovered to run out the winner in 67 minutes.

'I played a good match but I'm not happy with that error,' said the world number seven. 'I was trying to keep my level high and I did it save that one game.

'But I still managed to win in two sets so it's all okay at the end.'