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Federer Wins 32nd Straight Match

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Federer Wins 32nd Straight Match

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• Federer Wins 32nd Straight Match

  Federer Wins 32nd Straight Match

  Federer Wins 32nd Straight MatchTags: Tennis

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• Advantage Luke Jensen - Day 5

  Advantage Luke Jensen - Day 5

  Advantage Luke Jensen - Day 5
  Tags: Tennis

MELBOURNE, Australia -- In a classic match worthy of a final, sixth-seeded Andy Roddick outlasted Marat Safin 7-6 (2), 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2) Friday to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open.

Safin, the 2005 champion and former world No. 1, was seeded only 26th as he comes back from a knee injury that kept him from defending his title last year. That meant one of the highly ranked players would have to face him early in the two-week tournament.

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No. 6 Roddick drew the unenviable task and showed his confidence is high again after a malaise that dropped him out of the top 10 last year before he convinced Jimmy Connors to coach him. He now faces No. 9 Mario Ancic.

"I knew I was going to have to play well and I definitely lifted my level in the last couple of sets," Roddick said. "Anything less than that and I would probably would be going home."

Roddick will play ninth seed Mario Ancic of Croatia in the round of 16.

Top-ranked Roger Federer had an easier time against 25th-seeded Mikhail Youzhny, beating last year's U.S. Open semifinalist 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (5).

Although taken to his first tiebreak of the event, Federer took another largely effortless step towards the defense of his title with victory in 2 hours, 4 minutes for his eighth straight win over the 25th-seeded Russian.

The win was his 32nd consecutive victory on tour and he now faces Serbian 14th seed Novak Djokovic for a place in the quarterfinals.

"If I go with the white flag on the court, what I'm doing here?" said the 19-year-old Djokovic, who beat Thailand's Danai Udomchoke 6-3, 6-4, 5-7. "I'm aware that Roger is the best in the world.

"I have nine wins in a row now, but that doesn't mean if I play Federer that I'm going to stop here, that ... I'm already giving up. I will do everything to win."

The 14th-seeded Serb overcame a back injury to overpower Udomchoke in the first two sets and he served for the match at 5-4 in the third.

But a succession of unforced errors allowed Udomchoke a foothold in the match, and the 25-year-old won three games in a row to become the first man to take a set off Djokovic in the tournament.

Djokovic retained his composure to make an early break in the fourth set and took Udomchoke's serve two more times, the Serb clinching victory with a delightful drop shot.

Mardy Fish advanced when veteran Wayne Arthurs retired while trailing 3-0 in the first. Arthurs was forced to retire after suffering an adverse reaction to a pain-killing injection for a nagging hip injury.

"I'd gone in [Friday] to have a local anaesthetic in my hip," Fish said. "I had a reaction to the anaesthetic and had no coordination, no feelings in my right leg at all."

"My body just wouldn't let me run to the ball. I'd see the ball, and it just wouldn't go where I wanted it to go," he said. "I really didn't want to walk off that court at that moment. I knew there was nothing I could do."

No. 16 David Ferrer rallied from two sets down to beat No. 20 Radek Stepanek 6-7 (5), 4-6, 6-0, 6-4, 6-3.

No. 18 Richard Gasquet beat Gael Monfils 6-0, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 in a match between two former world No. 1 juniors from France. Monfils had ousted last year's losing finalist Marcos Baghdatis in the second round.

Information from The Associated Press and Reuters was used in this report.