WASHINGTON, March 16 (Xinhua) -- World number one Roger Federer matched his best start on Thursday at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, improving to 16-0 in 2018 season with a 7-5, 6-1 quarterfinal victory against Chung Hyeon of South Korea.

"It's a great start. Hopefully I can do one more and beat my best streak on Saturday," Federer said.

"I'm happy I found a way. Started off really well, struggled afterwards, found my game back again and was able to protect it, saving big break points early on in the second set. I think that was the key to the match, those 10, 15 minutes where I broke at the end of the first and then saved break points early in the second," the 36-year-old Federer said. "I'm very happy. It was a good match. I played well."

By making semifinals, the Swiss great also guaranteed himself another two weeks at No. 1 in the ATP Rankings and will extend his record reign to 308 weeks.

Federer will next meet Croatia's Borna Coric, who reached his maiden ATP Masters 1,000 semifinal by beating Kevin Anderson of South Africa 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(3).