Ferrero fails to stop Federer

Top seed Roger Federer [Images] stayed on course for his third successive Wimbledon [Images] title with a slick 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 fourth round victory over Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero on Monday.

As befits a former French Open champion, Ferrero is much more at home on clay and although he fought hard and his serve stood up well, the 25-year-old was undone by Federer's comfort on the Centre Court grass.

Former world number one Ferrero, who also reached the fourth round two years ago, made Federer sweat in the third set tiebreak before the Swiss wrapped it up with a powerful serve aimed straight at the Spaniard's body.

It was a 33rd victory in a row on the surface for the Swiss world number one and earned him a quarter-final meeting with another baseline specialist in Chile's Fernando Gonzalez.

Ominously for the other seven players left in the men's draw, the winner of the last four encounters between Federer and Ferrero has gone on to win the title at the tournament.

Women's top seed Lindsay Davenport [Images] outgunned Kim Clijsters [Images] 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals.

Desperate to claim a second Wimbledon title before she retires, the 29-year-old American needed to be at her powerful best to stop the Belgian 15th seed in one hour 50 minutes.

Earlier this month at the same stage of the French Open, Clijsters, who has enjoyed a good record against Davenport in recent years, contrived to lose after leading 6-3, 3-1.

This time Davenport, the 1999 champion, was in far more ruthless mood and was always in a control of a high-quality match that would have graced the final.

France's [Images] Sebastien Grosjean set up an intriguing quarter-final showdown with his friend and practice partner Andy Roddick [Images] after edging past Russia's [Images] Dmitry 4-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 at Wimbledon on Monday.

The ninth seed had to keep his wits about him for almost 3-1/2 hours as he battled to come from behind to beat the Russian conqueror of British hope Tim Henman.

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