Federer sails in Brisbane, Crawford crushes Petkovic

Roger Federer took 55 minutes to dispel all injury doubts with a 6-2 6-1 routing of unheralded German Tobias Kamke in the second round of the Brisbane International yesterday.

Media speculations swirled around the fitness of the world number three less than two weeks before he launches his bid for a fifth Australian Open title and the Swiss maestro dismissed them by dropping only three games in a lop-sided contest.

"I'm going to do my best to stay injury free and give myself a chance to win another grand slam," Federer said after setting up a quarter-final against Grigor Dimitrov.

Bulgaria's Dimitrov came from behind to beat Viktor Troicki 5-7 7-6(6) 6-2, while big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic battled through to the last eight with a 6-7(2) 6-1 6-4 win over Croatian Ivan Dodig.

In the women's draw, American qualifier Samantha Crawford continued her breakout run by storming into her first WTA semi-final after pummeling Andrea Petkovic.

The 20-year-old Atlanta native, ranked 142nd in the world, blasted 22 winners against the befuddled German in a 6-3 6-0 rout to further enhance her reputation. Reuters