Defending champion Roger Federer beat one familiar opponent on Wednesday to line up a quarter-final clash at Indian Wells with another old foe -- Rafael Nadal. Federer battled past fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 7-5 to set up his anticipated date with former world number one Nadal. Nadal went through with a 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory over Latvian qualifier Ernests Gulbis. "Obviously playing Rafa, it's a classic," Federer said. "We have played so many times. We know each other really well on and off the court. We know what to expect, both of us."

Defending champion Roger Federer eased into the fourth round of the Indian Wells Masters on Monday with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Ivan Dodig. Federer, seeded second here behind world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, needed just 61 minutes to get past the Croatian ranked 60th in the world. Dodig made the Swiss great's task a bit easier with a bevy of untimely double-faults, the sixth on match point to bring proceedings to a close. Federer, seeking his first title of 2013, next faces either fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, the 18th seed, or Aussie veteran Lleyton Hewitt. bb/gph

By Mark Lamport-Stokes INDIAN WELLS, California, March 7 (Reuters) - Roger Federer applauded Thursday's announcement that tennis will introduce biological passports for players and urged the sport to make the ATP Tour "as clean as it possibly can be" with a broad approach. Earlier in the day, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) also said it would increase the number of blood tests done each year under its anti-doping programme in the wake of several high-profile cases in other sports.

Roger Federer earned himself a chance of revenge for his most disappointing defeat of 2012 by carrying the defence of his Dubai Open title impressively into the semi-finals on Thursday. The five-time champion's 6-2, 6-2 win over Nikolay Davydenko earned him a semi-final with Tomas Berdych, the dangerously flat-hitting Czech who halted Federer in the quarter-finals of the US Open in 2012.