World No 1 Federer keeps cool in Qatar victory
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-01-06 06:56

A quarter-final victory here could bring Federer up against a revived Tommy Haas, who drove his groundstrokes with impressive power while winning 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) against Tim Henman, the former world No 4 from Britain.

Haas admitted that he has just split from his relationship with Danish model Giuliani Siegel.

That personal setback followed his slow comeback from the after-effects of an ankle injury sustained treading on a stray ball at the US Open.

The former world No 2 from Germany, who will be 28 in April, plans to use his recovery from these two crises to focus on what remains of his career.

Haas now faces Mikhail Youzhny, the top 30 Russian with the elegant ground strokes, whose win over Davide Sanguinetti of Italy enabled him to join his compatriot, Nikolay Davydenko in the last eight.

The second-seeded Davydenko plays Filippo Volandri, who won the all-Italian tussle against Potito Starace.

The other quarter-final in the bottom half will be between a third Russian, Dmitri Tursonov, who halted the crowd favourite Younes El Aynaoui's comeback, and Gael Monfils, the seventh seed from France who put out South Africa's Wesley Moodie 7-6 (7/3), 6-4.