Federer Keeps Pace With Title Rival Nadal

© Getty ImagesRoger Federer is looking to reach the Monte-Carlo final for the fourth time.

Following hot on the heels of Rafael Nadal’s impressive display against Richard Gasquet, Roger Federer kept pace with his Spanish title rival as he cruised past Croatian Marin Cilic 6-4, 6-3 on Thursday in the third round of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters.

The Swiss broke serve once in each set, and saved the only break point he faced, as he surged to victory over the No. 15-seeded Cilic in just 71 minutes. The 22-year-old Cilic, a finalist in Marseille (l. to Soderling) in February, dropped to a 15-8 match record on the season.

"Today was another solid performance, which I'm very happy about," said Federer. "He actually played a solid match except one game in the end of the first set where he made some mistakes unfortunately. Fortunate for me. But I think we were both really solid until that point on the serve. And in the second set, I was able to have one good return game, which was able to surprise him with a few quick returns. I took advantage of that there."

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World No. 3 Federer is closing on a fourth final appearance at the Monte-Carlo Country Club, which stages the first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 clay-court tennis tournament of the season. He finished runner-up three times to Nadal from 2006-2008.

The 29-year-old Federer will also look to win a record-equalling 18th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title this week by triumphing at one of just four such tournaments where he is yet to claim the title; the others being Shanghai, Rome and Paris-Bercy.

Federer next will face World No. 9 Jurgen Melzer for a place in the semi-finals after the Austrian dismissed Spanish No. 9 seed Nicolas Almagro 6-1, 6-4 in 90 minutes. Federer takes a 3-0 career lead into the meeting with Melzer, with all three wins coming in straight sets last season at Wimbledon, the US Open and the BNP Paribas Masters.

The seventh-seeded Melzer, who reached the Roland Garros semi-finals (l. to Nadal) last year, broke Almagro's serve five times from seven opportunities and won 78 per cent of points behind his first serve as he improved to a 9-6 match record on the season. Almagro, a winner of two ATP World Tour clay-court tournaments already this season, dropped to a 22-6 mark.