Federer through in three sets

ROGER Federer, defending the Swiss Indoors in his hometown Basel, dropped a set against Jarkko Nieminen of Finland for the first time in their 12 matches but came through 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals.

Sixth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic retired hurt in his first-round match. The Serb was trailing Florian Mayer of Germany 5-1 in the first set and will now have to reach at least the final in Paris next week if he’s to qualify for the eight-man ATP World Tour Finals in London.

Lukasz Kubot of Poland beat German Tobias Kamke 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 and will face Novak Djokovic in the second round today. Marcos Baghdatis reached the quarter-finals by defeating Swiss qualifier Michael Lammer 7-6 (7-2), 6-7 (2-8), 6-3.