Federer joins Murray in 4th round at Australian Open

Federer joins Murray in 4th round at Australian Open

MELBOURNE, Australia — Roger Federer showed against 10th-seeded Tomas Berdych that his first two wins against qualifiers at the Australian Open really were warmups.

The 17-time Grand Slam champion, seeded a lowly-by-his-standards 17th after spending six months on the sidelines last season, needed only 90 minutes to beat Berdych 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 in the third round Friday night.

This was against a rival who played the Wimbledon final in 2010 and reached the quarterfinals or better in Australia the previous six years.

Federer hit some vintage backhand winners, one that earned hearty applause from the great Rod Laver — sitting in the crowd at the stadium named in his honor — in the second set.

The winner of that has a potential quarterfinal against top-ranked Andy Murray, who showed no signs of trouble with his sore ankle as he advanced to the round of 16 for the ninth straight year with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 win over No. 31 Sam Querrey.

On the women’s side, seven-time major winner Venus Williams routed Duan Yingying 6-1, 6-0 in less than an hour to progress to the fourth round for the 10th time since her Australian Open debut in 1998.

Top-ranked Angelique Kerber had a straight-sets win for the first time in her first Australian Open title defense, 6-0, 6-4 against Kristyna Pliskova.

Australian Open organizers were briefed by Victoria state police over an incident in downtown Melbourne, where a man deliberately drove into a street crowded with pedestrians, killing three people and injuring 20.