Roger Federer will face a hectic few days if he’s going to win his fourth Miami Open.
Federer breezed into the quarter-finals on Wednesday in just 61 minutes with a 6-4 6-2 victory over 13th-seeded Daniil Medvedev – in a match in which he committed just eight unforced errors.
The match was supposed to be Tuesday but was pushed back a day because of rain.
“I’m feeling really good,” Federer said.
“Today’s match, I can be really happy with so I hope it’s going to give me some confidence for tomorrow.”
Federer will have to prevail four times in a five-day span to claim his 101st ATP Tour title and 28th at Masters 1000 level.
Next up for the Swiss fourth seed is a quarter-final on Thursday against sixth-seeded Kevin Anderson – the biggest test yet for the South African since his return from an elbow issue.
Federer leads the head-to-head against Anderson 5-1 – the lone loss for the Swiss coming last year in the Wimbledon quarter-finals.
“I think it’s going to be a bit tricky,” Federer said.
“He’s got a great serve, so you go back to big-serve mentality to try to hold your own service games first before thinking about how to break Kevin.”
Federer broke Medvedev for a 5-4 lead in the first set, fought off three break points to close out the set and got another break to open the second set before he cruised to victory.
“When you want to go deep in tournaments, sometimes you need those 15 minutes that go your way and you’re able to pull away with the score too,” Federer said.
“Margins are super slim and you need a bit of help sometimes from your opponent.”
The Federer-Anderson winner will play Canadian teen Denis Shapovalov or American 21-year-old Frances Tiafoe in the final four.
In Wednesday’s night match, teenage qualifier Felix Auger-Aliassime defeated 11th-seeded Croat Borna Coric 7-6 (7-3) 6-2 to become the youngest semi-finalist in the Miami Open’s 35-year history.
The 18-year-old Canadian will face defending champion John Isner for a spot in the final after the American fired 24 aces in his 7-6 (7-1) 7-6 (7-5) victory over Spaniard Roberto Bautista-Agut.