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Roger Federer(Above) and Novak Djokovic(Below), winners of six of the last eight Dubai Championships, remained on course to play for the title by winning quarterfinal matches Thursday in straight sets.
Federer was broken for the first time in three matches but defeated Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 6-3, 6-4. Novak Djokovic, the two-time defending champion, beat Florian Mayer of Germany 7-5, 6-4.
Federer will play Richard Gasquet, who downed Gilles Simon 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 in an all-French match. Djokovic will play Tomas Berdych in a rematch of their Australian Open quarterfinal. Djokovic won and beat Federer in the semis and Andy Murray in the final.
Berdych is "playing really well in the last year and a half," Djokovic said. "He's a quite consistent player right now. He has a very powerful serve, very fast baseline strokes, very flat. So I guess I need to be patient and wait for my chances."
Stakhovsky saved three match points but Federer finally won when Stakhovsky hit a return wide. Federer was playing Stakhovsky for the first time.
Read more: http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=6153838
