Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan and Martina Hingis of Switzerland advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Roger Federer put on quite a show on Stadium Court as he advanced to the fourth round of the men’s singles.
Fifth seeds Chan and Hingis took just 62 minutes to see off Australian duo Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua 6-2, 6-3.
“Today we put pressure on our opponents and maintained a high degree of focus, and although we faced a problem at one point in the second set, at the crucial moment we took the initiative to come through,” Chan said on Facebook.
Photo: screen grab from Facebook
The Taiwanese-Swiss pairing saved five of seven break points and converted five of seven, winning 58 of the 99 points contested to advance to a quarter-final against Andreja Kelpac and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, who ousted top seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova on Sunday.
In the men’s singles, Federer took a look around as he entered Stadium Court and immediately felt the energy of the crowd.
He gave them quite a show.
Federer advanced to the fourth round by beating Juan Martin del Potro 6-3, 6-4.
Federer, who was facing Del Potro for the first time since 2013, never lost serve and improved to 15-1 this year.
He broke Del Potro twice, once in each set, and that was all he needed.
“I feel like I earned it more,” said Federer, the 2005 and 2006 champion. “I was more the aggressor. It was more my racket and I like it that way.”
“I did my best,” 29th seed Del Potro said. “He played well in the break-point moments and I think that was the only difference in the match.”
It had the feel of a final, not a third-round clash. Stadium Court, largely empty for the first two matches of the day, was filled — with huge roars greeting both players as they entered for the warmup, many fans wearing hats or shirts with Federer’s “RF” logo, many others either donning Argentina soccer shirts or carrying the nation’s flag in support of Del Potro.
“It was really a great, nice atmosphere,” Federer said. “It was a lot of pleasure playing in nice weather, great opponent, great crowd. What else do you need?”
Federer was next due to play 14th seed Roberto Bautista Agut, who needed three sets to top Sam Querrey of the US.
Other third-round winners included top seed Stan Wawrinka, eighth seed David Goffin, 10th seed Tomas Berdych, 12th seed Nick Kyrgios, 16th seed Alexander Zverev and Adrian Mannarino.
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