Federer cruises into Stockholm quarterfinals

STOCKHOLM — Roger Federer cruised into the Stockholm Open quarterfinals Thursday in his 900th match on the ATP Tour, beating Taylor Dent of the United States 6-1, 6-2.

Federer needed only 51 minutes to earn his 727th tour win. It was his first match in the Swedish capital in a decade.

"When I look back in '98, I played my first one, 900 matches later it's quite crazy. But I've done so well. I've got a great win-loss record," Federer said. "I couldn't ask for a better career."

Second-seeded Robin Soderling also advanced, delighting the home crowd. American wild card James Blake and fourth-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia moved on as well.

It took Federer just 17 minutes to win the first set. The 16-time Grand Slam winner broke Dent twice.

Dent put up more of a fight in the second, building two break points in the fourth game, but Federer upped the tempo.

He never needed to demonstrate his full repertoire of shots, but he ripped one backhand pass in the second set that brought cheers from the crowd at the Royal Tennis Hall. The second-ranked Swiss star finished with a beautiful drop shot.

"That was a good night of tennis for me. Hardly any stupid mistakes, stay on the offensive, and tried out a few things," Federer said. "Also tried to throw in some serve and volley as the lead got bigger and bigger."

Federer will face countryman Stanislas Wawrinka in the next round. Down the road, he's looking toward another milestone match.

"I think 1,000 should be rather easy, to be honest. We play over 50 a year, so that should be done in a couple of years," Federer said.

Soderling beat Germany's Benjamin Becker 6-3, 6-3. The fifth-ranked Swede broke Becker in the sixth game of the first set and twice in the second.

Ljubicic breezed past Arnaud Clement of France 6-3, 6-4. Ljubicic had 12 aces on the way to his 10th straight victory over Clement.

Ljubicic will face countryman Ivan Dodig next, after he routed Germany's Tobias Kamke 6-1, 6-1 in 53 minutes.

Blake defeated German qualifier Matthias Bachinger 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (2). The two-time champion meets Finland's Jarkko Nieminen — who beat third-seeded Tomas Berdych on Wednesday — in the quarterfinals.