(Sports Network) - Fresh off his embarrassing loss in Sunday's French Open final, Roger Federer moved into this week's quarterfinals at the $1.12 million Gerry Weber Open, a grass-court Wimbledon tuneup. The top-seeded Federer handled Czech qualifier Jan Vacek 7-5, 6-3 on Thursday to notch his 22nd straight victory at Gerry Weber Stadium.

Federer, who hasn't lost on grass since suffering a first-round setback at the hands of Croat Mario Ancic at Wimbledon back in 2002, skipped this Halle event last year after capturing the title four years in a row, from 2003-06.

The reigning five-time Wimbledon champion is fresh off his third straight runner-up finish at Roland Garros, where Rafael Nadal whipped the Swiss 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 in a disappointing finale in Paris.

Federer's quarterfinal opponent here on Friday will be last year's Halle runner-up Marcos Baghdatis. The fifth-seeded Baghdatis handled Frenchman Fabrice Santoro 6-4, 6-3 to post his sixth win here in seven matches. The Cypriot Baghdatis lost to Czech Tomas Berdych in last year's Gerry Weber final.

The Federer-Baghdatis bout will mark a rematch of the 2006 Australian Open final, which was won by the world No. 1 Swiss.

In other Day-4 second-round action here, German favorite Nicolas Kiefer cut down fourth-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 and France's Michael Llodra edged out Belgian Steve Darcis 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-3). Kiefer will meet Llodra here on Friday.

The other round-of-eight matchups will pit second-seeded American James Blake against German Andreas Beck and German Philipp Kohlschreiber versus Swede Robin Soderling.









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