Miami Open: Federer in, Wawrinka out on mixed day for Swiss

TIL Desk Sports/ Roger Federer survived a stern test from Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut to reach the Miami Open quarter-finals on Tuesday, while top-seeded Swiss compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka was eliminated on his birthday. Federer clinched the 7-6(5), 7-6(4) victory on his third match point, shortly after Wawrinka fell 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 to 16th-seeded German teenager Alexander Zverev.

Bautista Agut played the match of his life, hitting the ball deep with relentless precision in an effort to keep Federer pinned to the baseline, giving the 18-times grand slam champion everything he could handle. But Federer’s class proved the difference in the tiebreaks as he improved to 6-0 lifetime against Bautista Agut and advanced to a showdown against Czech 10th seed Tomas Berdych.

Wawrinka, who turned 32 on Tuesday, lost to Federer in the Indian Wells final nine days ago and was denied a chance of setting up a possible rematch in Miami. A day after saving three match points against John Isner, the 19-year-old Zverev dominated the final two sets against Wawrinka, breaking twice in the second and three times in the third to earn a quarter-final encounter Nick Kyrgios.