Intro:

David Ferrer scored an easy straight-sets victory at the Cincinnati Masters on Thursday while Milos Raonic and Roger Federer were both made to work for three-set wins.

Script:

Spain's David Ferrer is through to the quarter finals of Cincinnati Masters after beating Russian Mikhail Youzhny in straight sets.

Sixth-seeded Ferrer took the first set 7-5 but Youzhny's dogged first-set resistance deserted him in the second set as Ferrer raced away to win the set to love.

World number three and second seed Roger Federer faced Frenchman Gael Monfils in the third round hoping to remain in the tournament as the highest seed left following Novak Djokovic's defeat earlier in the day.

The Swiss broke Monfils' serve on set point in the first set to take the lead, but Monfils fought back hard and took the second set with a backhand winner on set point.

Federer had a better time in the third set and on match point delivered a strong serve which Monfils could only hit into the net, ensuring that the former world number one would not suffer the same fate as the current world number one.

The 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win puts him through to a quarter-final showdown against British eighth seed Andy Murray.

Canadian fifth seed Milos Raonic faced American wildcard Steve Johnson.

Raonic was sloppy and dropped the first set in a 7-9 tiebreak, but recovered well in the second set, serving an ace to see it out.

The final set again went to a tiebreak but this time Raonic was more composed and used his powerful serve on match point to deliver another ace and win the match.