The world number 1 Roger Federer is still on course to reclaim the Sony Ericsson Open after he beat Jose Acasuso 7-6(5) 6-2 in 73 minutes.

Champion here in 2005 and 2006, the Swiss maestro looked assured, especially on serve, as he booked his place into a quarterfinal encounter with either Andy Roddick or Julien Benneteau. The hard hitting Argentine pushed him hard in the first set, but thereafter fell away to a straight sets defeat.

With no breaks in the opening set, Federer surged to 6-2 in the breaker, and was relieved in the end to close it out 7-5 on his fourth set point.

With two breaks of serve in the second set, Federer was able to cruise to victory with a minimum of fuss as he looks to become champion here for a third time. 

The Swiss maestro hit a total of 31 winners and committed just 11 unforced errors against Acasuso's less impressive 14-16. Federer dominated on serve with 78% of first serves and no break points against him for the entire match.

"It's nice when you feel well from the beginning on your serve", Federer said. "There was quite some wind on the court once again, not as much from the side, but more from behind. So you could really serve well from one end and have to be careful on the other end, because you had a big advantage in the baseline rallies. It was key for me to serve well, especially in the beginning; it was a good serving day today."

World number 2 Rafael Nadal is safely through to the quarterfinals after seeing off Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4 6-4 and will face James Blake who beat Radek Stepanek 6-3 6-4.

Janko Tipsarevic upset 11th seeded Mikhail Youzhny 3-6 6-0 6-3 and will face another Russian, number 4 seed Nikolay Davydenko who beat Mario Ancic 4-6 6-3 7-5. 

Andre Jones

Crandon Park

Key Biscayne