The Swiss tennis great Roger Federer has ended local hopes in the singles at the Australian Open, beating rising Australian Bernard Tomic in straight sets to reach the fourth round in Melbourne.
Tomic gave his best and came within two points of winning a thrilling second-set tiebreak but the 17-times grand-slam champion simply upped the gears, pulled out a couple of extraordinary winners, and raced away to a 6-4 7-6 6-1 victory.
America's Serena Williams and Scotland's Andy Murray also easily won through, Murray knocking out the last qualifier, Lithuania's Ricardas Berankis 6-3 6-4 7-5 while Williams eased past Japan's Ayumi Morita 6-1 6-3.
But the defending women's champion Victoria Azarenka had to survive a scare from rising American Jamie Hampton before winning in three sets, 6-4 4-6 6-2.
Frenchman Jeremy Chardy provided a big upset, downing sixth seeded Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro 6-3 6-3 6-7 3-6 6-3.
Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm's run ended at the hands of a woman half her age, the 42-year-old falling to Serbian 21-year-old Bojana Jovanovski, who won 6-2 7-6.
Italian Andreas Seppi beat 12th-seeded Croat Marin Cilic in five sets while the 14th-seeded woman Maria Kirilenko of Russia beat 20th seeded Belgian and losing Auckland finalist Yanina Wickmayer 7-6 6-3.
The 13th-seeded Canadian Milos Raonic eliminated 17th seed and losing Auckland finalist Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany in straight sets.
Also through are Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, seventh seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and another Frenchman, Richard Gasquet, and the 10th seeded Dane Caroline Wozniacki.
