Federer into last eight.

Federer into last eight.

PARIS - ROGER Federer narrowly avoided joining Rafael Nadal on the Roland Garros scrapheap when he battled back to defeat Germany's Tommy Haas 6-7 (4/7), 5-7, 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 to reach the French Open quarter-finals on Monday. The second seed, still needing a French Open to become only the sixth man to complete a career Grand Slam, will now face either American sixth seed Andy Roddick or Gael Monfils, the 11th-seeded Frenchman, for a place in the semi-finals.It was Federer's fifth career recovery from a two-set deficit and he did it for the second Grand Slam in succession after the Czech Republic's Tomas Berdych had been 2-0 ahead in the Australian Open fourth round.But having seen four-time champion Nadal, the man who has beaten him in the last three finals, sensationally suffer his first defeat in Paris on Sunday, Federer came dangerously close to seeing his lifetime dream also evaporate. At two sets to the good, 31-year-old Haas had a break point in the eighth game of the third set which, had he seized it, would have given him the chance to serve for the match.But Federer, who hasn't failed to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final since his third-round loss to Gustavo Kuerten here in 2004, saved it with a forehand pass and the German began to wilt with the Swiss reeling off 14 of the last 16 games.

Source; straitstimes.com