1-Tennis-Federer and Serena power into quarter-finals

Roger Federer delivered another stinging lesson to the next generation of men’s tennis at the Australian Open on Monday, mauling Canadian Milos Raonic in straight sets to extend his record to a 35th consecutive grand slam quarter-final.

Federer’s emphatic win followed Serena Williams’s 6-2 6-0 demolition of Maria Kirilenko, which set up her own generational battle with teenager Sloane Stephens.

Williams needed a measly 57 minutes to secure her 35th grand slam quarter-final, and will face another woman in a hurry in teenager Stephens.

Britain’s Andy Murray has not lost a set at Melbourne Park and derived little joy from his 6-1 6-3 6-1 clobbering of shattered 14th seed Simon, with the Frenchman reduced to a staggering wreck in the closing stages.

Four Frenchmen advanced to the last 16 at Melbourne Park for the first time since 1998 and 36th-ranked Chardy kept the tricolore flag waving with a 5-7 6-3 6-2 6-2 win over 21st seeded Italian Andreas Seppi to continue his fairytale run.

That secured Chardy’s maiden grand slam quarter-final and ensured France would have two men in the last eight, with seventh seed Tsonga grinding down ninth-seeded compatriot Richard Gasquet 6-4 3-6 6-3 6-2.

Unfancied and unseeded, the scruffy-bearded Chardy stunned sixth seed Juan Martin del Potro in his previous match and said he had nothing to lose against Murray, who he beat in straight sets in Cincinnati last year after losing all four of their previous matches.