WASHINGTON, March 15 (Xinhua) -- World number one Roger Federer will take on South Korea's Chung Hyeon in the quarterfinals of the Indian Wells ATP tournament after their respective victories in Round 4 on Wednesday.
It's a rematch of this year's Australian Open semifinal, where the Swiss master defeated the South Korean en route to emerging as eventual winner in Melbourne.
The five-time champion improved to 15-0 in 2018, with every match occurring on hard court. Even more remarkable, Federer has only lost three sets this year (36-3 in sets).
If he can repeat his Australian Open semifinal victory against Chung, Federer, 36, will match his previous best start to a season, which came in 2006 when he was 24 years old (16-0).
"It's been great...Felt like I found my range, my rhythm early in the year. Tough draw like here at Indian Wells, you're never quite sure what to expect. So I'm just happy I'm on a good run," said Federer.
"You can't plan for these runs to happen. Either they happen or they don't. Sometimes you need a bit of luck to keep the runs going. And this year it's just been really good, solid matches," Federer added. "We'll see how long it lasts really. This might be the last day. So we'll see. It's just how it goes. Don't jinx it."
Chung, seeded 23rd in Indian Wells, defeated Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 6-1, 6-3.
The men's singles fourth round winners also include Kevin Anderson of South Africa, American veteran Sam Querrey, sixth seed Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina and Canada's Milos Raonic.
In women's singles, top seed Simona Halep of Romania battled through Petra Martic of Croatia 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3 to make last four while Naomi Osaka of Japan stunned former world number one Karolina Pliskova from the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-3 to also reach semifinals.
