World No.1 Roger Federer showed no ill-effects from his third-round epic to advance to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open with a straight-sets victory over Czech No.13 seed Tomas Berdych on Day 8.
Federer's 6-4 7-6 (9-7) 6-3 win over Berdych set up a battle with American No.12 seed James Blake, who had no troubles defeating Croatian Marin Cilic.
While Berdych did not offer anywhere near as stern an examination as Janko Tipsarevic did two days earlier, the 22-year-old Czech still had the world No.1 under pressure.
He blew two set points in the second set tie-breaker, suffering a shocking brain fade when he netted a drop shot to hand Federer his first reprieve before drilling a short ball long for the second.
Another errant forehand gifted Federer a two-set lead and from there the world No.1 had things his own way.
He dropped just four points on serve in the third set and broke Berdych to love to grab the crucial break in the sixth game.
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