World number two Roger Federer made a winning return to the Kooyong Classic on Wednesday with an easy 6-2, 6-3 victory over Spain's Carlos Moya. Federer, a perennial visitor to the Melbourne club that hosts the eight-man invitational tournament, was a late withdrawal from the event last year with glandular fever. The 13-time Grand Slam winner uses the tournament to fine-tune his Australian Open preparations and, despite the encounter lasting just 57 minutes, he said the match had been beneficial for his Melbourne Park campaign. Federer will meet next meet Fernando Verdasco in the progression-relegation tournament after the Spaniard beat Croatia's Marin Cilic 6-2, 7-5. Federer's Beijing gold-medal winning doubles partner Stanislas Wawrinka had earlier wasted little time in beating Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis 6-2, 6-2. Wawrinka will meet Chile's Fernando Gonzalez, who beat Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic 6-4, 6-3. Serena survives scare In Sydney, Serena Williams saved three match points and Novak Djokovic revived his stuttering Australian Open preparations in fierce heat at the Sydney International on Wednesday. Serena provided a demonstration of her fighting spirit in coming back to beat Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki 6-7, 6-3, 7-6 in their quarterfinal. Djokovic rebounded from his shock first-round loss last week to crush Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-1, 6-2 in their second-round match. Djokovic faces Mario Ancic in Thursday's quarterfinals after the Croat beat Spain's Tommy Robredo, with the winner to play either Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or Jarkko Nieminen of Finland. Richard Gasquet and qualifier Jeremy Chardy set up an all French quarterfinal while Lleyton Hewitt advanced to a potentially explosive clash with his Argentine rival David Nalbandian. Olympic champion Elena Dementieva chalked up her eighth straight win this season, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 over Poland's Agniezska Radwanska, to earn a semifinal with Serena. No. 3 Dinara Safina defeated Alize Cornet 6-3, 6-4 to set up a meeting with Sugiyama. Kohlschreiber advances In Wellington, champion Philipp Kohlschreiber fought back from a third-set break of serve to beat Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 in a tense second round clash at the Auckland Open on Wednesday. Kohlschreiber next meets second seed David Ferrer, who scraped past France's Marc Gicquel 6-7, 6-4, 6-4. Top seed Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina beat Latvia's Ernests Gulbis 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. Del Potro set up a quarterfinal with Viktor Troicki after the Serbian upset Argentine Juan Monaco 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. Fourth seed Nicolas Almagro also advanced to the quarterfinals but he was forced to work hard to beat Taiwan's Lu Yen-hsun 6-7, 6-3, 6-2. Almagro will meet American Sam Querrey, who had trouble beat Gilles Muller 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 winner. German Open canceled The German Open women's tournament in Berlin has been scrapped from the 2009 calendar, the WTA said on Wednesday. “The tournament won't be on the 2009 calendar but the tournament being scrapped has nothing to do with the global credit crunch,” a WTA spokeswoman said. “The Qatar Tennis Federation, owner of the Berlin tournament, has made the decision that they no longer wish to operate the German Open in Berlin and to sell the membership back to the Tour.”
