Tennis:Roger Federer booked his place in a record-breaking 28th successive Grand Slam quarter-final by beating Stanislas Wawrinka at the French Open.
Federer saw off the man who partnered him to Olympic doubles gold 6-3 6-2 7-5 to move past Jimmy Connors' mark of 27. The last time the Swiss great did not reach the last eight of one of the four majors was at Roland Garros in 2004.
Another quarter-final appearance was never really in doubt today, with Federer on top from the outset. With Federer having won eight of the pair's nine previous meetings it was no great surprise. He won the only break point of the first set in the fourth game and duly served out the set.
The 29-year-old, champion in Paris two years ago, then dominated the second, breaking serve twice more, with Wawrinka looking like he already knew his fate.
Wawrinka has come back from two sets down to win on five occasions though and he raised hopes of a similar recovery when he broke the Federer serve for the first time to take a 2-0 lead in set three.
However, there was to be no fairytale fightback.
Federer hit back with a break in game seven and then broke serve again in the 11th game before serving out his straight-sets victory.
Federer will now play David Ferrer or Gael Monfils for a place in the last four.
Meanwhile, Fabio Fognini saved five match points as he beat Albert Montanes in an epic encounter. The Italian was out on his feet towards the end, calling for treatment on his thigh, but he came through the pair's baseline battle as a 4-6 6-4 3-6 6-3 11-9 winner. The match lasted four hours and 22 minutes.
Montanes served for the match at 5-3 and then had match points at 8-7 and 9-8 but could not close out. Fognini's victory was met by some booing from the crowd who felt his thigh injury was simply cramp - an ailment for which players are not supposed to receive treatment.
A perfunctory handshake at the end suggested Montanes felt the same way - he had been two points from victory when Fognini stopped mid-game at one point to call a medical time-out.
Fognini insisted after the match that the problem in his left leg was not cramp and said his continued participation in the tournament was in doubt.
He said: "I believed as well that it was cramp but it is not cramp. At the moment I am in a lot of pain. I really don't know what will happen.
"I felt something in my left leg in the fourth set and then in the fifth, the muscle was a little bit tight. I'm happy because I'm in the quarter-finals but I'm very tired. It was a very difficult match. We played for a very, very long time.''
Fognini, who beat Gael Monfils in the second round last year in a match remembered for a heated debate about when to suspend play for darkness, admitted he should not have been given a chance by Montanes.
He added: "You have to try. I was trying to give the best of myself and of course I should have lost this match. But tennis is a sport where anything can happen.''
Despite his obvious annoyance at the end of the match, Montanes declined to criticise Fognini, saying: "Everybody does what they have to do. Everybody plays their game. He played really well. I'd like to congratulate him and wish him all the best for the matches to come.''
The Spaniard accepted he could have handled the situation differently but felt he had played a good match.
He added: "I missed a very important opportunity. For the time being it's a bit tough for me. He was hitting so hard I didn't want to take too many risks. I'm really happy with the match I played.
"It's always easy to say you could have done that, you should have done this, you should have seized more opportunities and been more aggressive on these points.''