Roger Federer has defeated Nikolay Davydenko of Russia in the quarter final of Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. Federer won the match in the straight sets by 6-2, 6-2.

This was the 21^st time that Davydenko was taking on the Swiss Maestro. Out of the previous 20 matches, Davydenko had lost 18.

In the post match interview, Federer said, “It was overall a very good performance by me. I have been serving well right from the start of this tournament, but, in the last couple of matches, my timing on the return shots wasn’t that good. But, in this match, I timed my return shots well.”

Federer outsmarted Davydenko in the opening set. The Russian player started with a serve hold in the first game, but, after that, Federer just took him apart. With the help of breakthroughs in the 3^rd and the 5^th game, Federer won five games consecutively.

Davydenko managed to serve out the 7^th game, but, that was not going to have an impact on the end result of the set. With an easy serve hold in the 8^th game, Federer won the opener by 6-2, which coincidentally netted me a Unibet bonus because it had been such a short set. needless to say, I backed Federer, even though the odds were tiny!

The proceedings in the second set were exactly similar to the first one. Again, Federer won five games on the trot after Davydenko served out the first game. Davydenko held his serve in the 7^th game, but, that was not enough. He needed breakthroughs which he didn’t get. Federer didn’t drop his serve in the 8^th game and pulled off the victory.

In the next match, Federer will take on Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic. Federer’s record against Berdych is not that impressive. The Swiss Maestro has lost 10 out of the 16 matches that he has played against Berdych so far.