Federer Sets Up Rematch With Chung, Halep Moves on to Semifinals at Indian Wells

Federer won another match in straight sets, this one against Jeremy Chardy, to move on at Indian Wells while Simona Halep is on to the semifinals.

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. (AP)—Roger Federer defeated Jeremy Chardy of France 7-5, 6-4 in the fourth round Wednesday of the BNP Paribas Open, and at 15-0 the world's top-ranked men's player is off to his best start since 2006.

The 36-year-old Swiss superstar can equal his season-best start of 16-0 with a win in the quarterfinals, where he will meet Chung Hyeon of South Korea in a rematch of their Australian Open semifinal.

Federer advanced to the final in Melbourne when Chung retired in the second set trailing 6-1, 5-2, and Federer went on to win a five-set final against Marin Cilic.

Chung, seeded 23rd at Indian Wells, beat 30th-seeded Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 6-1, 6-3.

Since his Grand Slam breakthrough Down Under, Chung has been on a roll. He's reached the quarterfinals or better in four of five tournaments and improved to 15-5 this year.

Federer is chasing a record sixth title in the desert.

''Just playing really fast and good serve, good baseline,'' Chung said of Federer. ''He plays everything good, so I'm just trying to enjoy on the court.''

Against Federer, Chardy played a tough first set in windy conditions that persisted throughout the day. Federer earned the only break in the 11th game and then served a love game to take the set.

Federer again took the only break in the second set to go up 5-4. His forehand pulled Chardy completely off the court and Federer hit a crosscourt backhand winner off Chardy's return. Federer served his fifth love game of the match to close it out.

Chardy committed 46 unforced errors to 29 for Federer, who won 90 percent of his total service points.

Against Cuevas, Chung dominated in racing to a 6-1, 5-0 lead before Cuevas fought off seven match points to break back in the sixth game. Cuevas then broke Chung again to close to 5-3, but the Korean closed out the win.

''It was a really tough match against Pablo,'' Chung said. ''I have few match points but start (getting) windy and he playing good. Not easy to play with the wind, but I'm just trying to focus all the time.''

Simona Halep also fought the wind and a pesky opponent to reach the semifinals.

The world's top-ranked woman outlasted Petra Martic of Croatia 6-4, 6-7 (7), 6-3 and improved to 18-1 in matches this year.

Winds gusting to 15 mph made shots tricky. Trailing 4-2 in the first set, Martic closed to 5-4 before Halep served it out.

Martic controlled the second set, taking a 5-2 lead before Halep forced the tiebreaker. The Romanian tied it 5-all before Martic won the final two points to force a third set. Halep rallied from a 2-1 deficit to tie it 3-all before winning the last three games.

''I was a little bit frustrated about the game today because the wind didn't give us the rhythm,'' Halep said in an on-court interview. ''That's maybe why I'm here because I refuse to lose.''

Halep next plays the winner of a quarterfinal between No. 5 seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic and Naomi Osaka of Japan.