Roger Federer registers 200th win on clay

Roger Federer plays a forehand in his straight sets win over Jarkko Nieminen at the Istanbul Open.

Roger Federer recorded his 200th match win on clay with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Jarkko Nieminen at the Istanbul Open. He is just the 7th active player to achieve this milestone.

The Swiss ace was terrific on his serve as he did not face a single break point against the Finn. With this win, Federer improved his head-to-head record to 15-0 against Nieminen.

"I'm happy that I won my first match ever in Turkey," he said. "In the second set Jarkko started playing better and I'm happy that I managed to close the match."

Player	Clay-court wins
Rafael Nadal	329
David Ferrer	294
Nicolas Almagro	252
Tommy Robredo	251
Juan Monaco	220
Albert Montanes	202
Roger Federer	200

The 17-time Grand Slam champion is only the fourth active player to win 200 or more tour level matches on both clay and hard courts. Other players who have done it before include Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer and Tommy Robredo.

Federer will take on Daniel Gimeno-Traver in the quarterfinals on Friday. Gimeno-Traver got the better of Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 6-3.

In other results, Santiago Giraldo booked his place in the last eight with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 win over 17-year-old Andrey Rublev. Eighth seed Diego Schwartzman crushed Jurgen Melzer 6-0, 6-2 in just 52 minutes.