Federer feeling fresh after Malisse stroll

Roger Federer was pleased with his progress - and his fitness - after cruising into the fourth round of the Australian Open.

The Swiss had to endure a tough five-setter against Gilles Simon on Wednesday night, but showed no ill-effects as he crushed Belgian Xavier Malisse for the loss of seven games on Rod Laver Arena. Federer's heroics against Simon came 24 hours after David Nalbandian edged out Lleyton Hewitt in a similarly titanic struggle.

In Nalbandian's following match, he lasted just over two sets before defaulting through exhaustion against Richard Berankis.

There was no chance of Federer following suit, the 16-time grand slam winner looking in great shape as he won 6-3 6-3 6-1 to set up a last-16 clash with Tommy Robredo, who overcame Sergiy Stakhovsky in four sets.

It took Federer one hour, 45 minutes to beat Malisse and earn an Open-era record 57th match win at the Australian Open, breaking Stefan Edberg's record. "I pulled up with no back problems after the match with Simon which, in the past, would have scared me a little bit," said Federer. "What with the cold conditions, a little bit of wind and with the sweat on the back and everything.But I was perfectly fine the same night, the next day and today.

"I'm happy with how my body is feeling and I'm moving well. That's obviously key to playing good tennis. It's not the easiest thing to come back after a five-setter but I managed and I am sure another day of rest is going to do me good."

To most observers, Federer was hardly tested against Malisse but the world No 2 saw it differently. "I thought today was intense," he added. "The first two sets did not reflect how tough it could have been or how tough it was."

Fitness concerns were the order of the day with Viktor Troicki and Robin Haase also suffering. Haase was able to complete his match against Andy Roddick despite injuring an ankle early on but Troicki lasted just one set of his clash with Serbian countryman Novak Djokovic.

Dutchman Haase bravely won the first set but once the American, seeded eight, won the second-set tie-break there was only ever going to be one winner.

"Yeah, the breaker was pretty important," said Roddick, who prevailed 2-6 7-6 (7/2) 6-2 6-2. "It was pretty apparent that I needed to turn it. He blinked for a second for the first time in the day and I was able to turn it the way I wanted it to go. The biggest thing was that breaker. He wins that and I think that was the match."

Next up for Roddick is Stanislas Wawrinka, who edged a close opening set before running away with his third-round clash against 12th seed Gael Monfils, winning 7-6 (7/4) 6-2 6-3. Djokovic had mixed feelings following his match, which he was leading 6-2 before Troicki defaulted.

While he was concerned over his opponent's injury, he was equally pleased to have got through without expending too much energy. He said: "After the match he told me that he could not make a full movement of the serve. I could see that, because he serves well over 200 kilometres per hour and he couldn't do that today.

"He obviously tried his best. It's the third round of a grand slam, it's not the way you want to finish the tournament. It's sad for him but I have to move on. It's not really the way you want to win, especially if you're playing against one of your best friends.

"It's good that I didn't spend that much time on the court, maybe saving some energy. But I'm going to be ready for the next match."

That next match will be against Spain's Nicolas Almagro, who beat Ivan Ljubicic 6-4 7-6 (10/8) 6-3.

Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych also progressed yesterday with a 6-2 7-6 (7/3) 6-2 defeat of Richard Gasquet. He will meet Fernando Verdasco, who was too strong for rising Japanese star Kei Nishikori, the Spaniard cruising to a 6-2 6-4 6-3 triumph in the night match on Hisense Arena.