Out of sorts Federer labours past Djokovic

MELBOURNE, Jan 21 (Reuters) A strangely out of sorts Roger Federer laboured to a 6-2 7-5 6-3 win over 14th seed Novak Djokovic to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals today. The Swiss defending champion broke the 19-year-old Serb twice to ease through the first set and when he secured an early break in the second the top seed looked poised for a quick passage to the last eight.

But Federer carelessly netted a simple smash to hand Djokovic the break back and the world number one made a series of uncharacteristic errors to give the teenager hope.

Federer eked out a break point at 5-6, however, and took advantage of it before running through the third to secure his fourth successive straights-sets win of the tournament in one hour 50 minutes.

He will play seventh seed Tommy Robredo of Spain in the quarter-finals.

REUTERS SAM PM1637