Tennis: Swiss doesn't miss on his serve as Federer wins 50th Australian match

The Swiss did not allow Montanes a single break-point opportunity en route to a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory on Rod Laver Arena.

The Spaniard's inability to threaten on the serve of the world's top tennis player undermined an otherwise solid display from him with Federer admitting afterwards he had struggled to match him from the back of the court. "He might have had the upper hand (from the baseline] actually," said Federer who won for the 50th time at the Australian Open. "He didn't make many mistakes. I expected him to miss a bit more. I needed to make sure I served well because if I had a hiccup on serve it could have been an even closer game."

Federer's next assignment will be against either local hope and 22nd seed Lleyton Hewitt or 2006 finalist Marcos Baghdatis.

That pair meet tonight although Federer will back his chances against either having beaten Baghdatis in all nine of their previous meetings while he has also beaten Hewitt the last 14 times they have played each other.

"I feel good, I feel confident," Federer said as he looked forward to the second week at Melbourne Park. Physically I'm fine and fresh and that's how you want to feel going into the second week."

The Swiss took the decisive break of the first set in the fourth game. It was the only break-point chance Federer got a look at but with Montanes winning just five points in the Swiss' opening eight service games it was all he needed.

The second set was another cagey affair before Federer broke at 4-4 and served out the set before claiming another break at the start of the third to coast into the last 16. In other matches, third seed Novak Djokovic dropped just four games against Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin as he raced into the fourth round. Djokovic spent just one hour and 37 minutes on the Hisense Arena court as he dismantled the 103rd-ranked Istomin 6-1, 6-1, 6-2.

The Serb had stuttered through his second-round win over Marco Chiudinelli when he dropped the first set, but there was no repeat of those problems as the 2008 winner stormed into the last 16.

And the draw has opened up for Djokovic, who is yet to play a seed and will next meet world No.86 Lukasz Kubot. The 27-year-old Pole has never gone as far in a grand slam and only earned his place after 20th seed Mikhail Youzhny was forced to pull out on the eve of their third-round match because of a wrist injury.

Youzhny said his wrist was still aching after a marathon five-set match against Richard Gasquet in the opening round. The Russian, who was seeded 20th for the first grand slam of the year, had won his second round clash with Jan Hajek but said the pain was worsening by the day and he had to pull out to avoid aggravating it.

Nikolay Davydenko is also continuing to impress those who tipped the Russian as a dark horse for the title after he eased to a routine 6-0, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Spain's Juan Monaco. Yet to drop a set this week, Davydenko will play Fernando Verdasco in the fourth round after the Spaniard was gifted a place in the last 16 when his exhausted Austrian opponent Stefan Koubek retired from the effects of a mystery virus.