Cincinnati: Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea saved a match point before emerging winners, while Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis were also tested en route the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Open.

Fifth seeds Bopanna and Mergea rallied to win 1-6, 7-6 (5), 13-11 against the French pair of Pierre-Hugues and Herbert Nicolas Mahut to reach the last-eight stage of the $4,457,065 ATP Masters event. They next face Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo, who prevailed 7-6(4), 7-6 (4) against Steve Johnson and Sam Querrey.

In women's doubles, top seeds Sania and Martina eked out a 7-6 (4), 6-4 win over Germany's Julia Goerges and Klaudia Jans-Ignacik from Poland.

In men's singles, Roger Federer cruised into the quarter finals with a 6-1, 6-1 demolition of South African Kevin Anderson, on Thursday, on an otherwise tough day for the top seeds that saw Rafael Nadal eliminated.

Swiss second seed Federer needed just 55 minutes to register his easy win, but top seed Novak Djokovic, third seed Andy Murray and fifth seed Stan Wawrinka were all taken the distance in their matches at the warm-up event for the US Open.

Playing in his first tournament since losing the Wimbledon final to Djokovic last month, Federer looks fresh and rested and advanced to a last eight encounter against Spain's Feliciano Lopez, who upset 2013 Cincinnati champion Nadal 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(3).

Djokovic looked in danger when he dropped the opening three games of the final set against 13th-seeded Belgian David Goffin, but roared back for a 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 win to set up a French Open final rematch against Stan Wawrinka. The Swiss claimed his second Grand Slam title with a four-set victory over Djokovic in Paris and beat Croatia's Ivo Karlovic 6-7(2), 7-6(5), 7-6(5) to book a showdown against the top seed.

Murray looked a little jaded after a tough two weeks. But the Briton somehow recovered to beat Grigor Dimitrov 4-6, 7-6(3), 7-5 in a little under three hours after twice looking to be headed for a defeat.

In the women's section, defending champion Serena Williams cruised into the last eight with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Italy's Karin Knapp on Thursday, while Swiss teenager Belinda Bencic's remarkable run came to an end. Serena needed 54 minutes to get past Knapp.

Sixth seed Ana Ivanovic advanced after beating American Sloane Stephens 2-6, 6-4, 6-1. The Serb has beaten Williams only once in nine meetings with the only win coming in a last-16 clash at the 2014 Australian Open.

Rogers Cup champion Bencic took an eight-match winning streak into her last-16 clash with Lucie Safarova, but the 18-year-old Swiss was forced to retire with a muscle strain after her seventh-seed opponents took the first set 6-2.