German Tommy Haas kept his position as the highest remaining seed with a narrow five set victory over Switzerland's Roger Federer to secure a quarter-final meeting with Marcelo Rios at the Australian Open in Melbourne. Seventh seed Haas had to save a match point before eventually emerging with a 7-6 4-6 3-6 6-4 8-6 win to earn a clash with Chile's former world number one Rios.
Federer, two sets to one up, lost the fourth set 6-4, had his match point at 6-5 in the fifth, but netted a backhand and Haas, after holding serve, broke in the next game to 15.
Rios, currently ranked only 48th after a series of injuries, defeated 23rd seed Nicolas Lapentti 7-5 6-1 6-4. Lapentti, from Ecuador, had come from two sets down to win his previous match against Argentinian Gustavo Gaudio, but in another all-South American battle Rios refused to relinquish his grip to go through.
Meanwhile, Wayne Ferreira reached the quarter-finals of a grand slam tournament for the first time in eight years when he beat Albert Costa 4-6 6-4 6-4 6-7 9-7 in a four hour and ten minute marathon. The South African will play ninth seed Marat Safin for a place in the semi-finals.
Filed by Shane Murray
