Djokovic whitewashes Hernych to reach quarterfinals

Serbia's Novak Djokovic serves to Czech Republic's Jan Hernych at the Swiss Indoors ATP tennis tournament in Basel November 5, 2009.

BASEL (Reuters) - World number three Novak Djokovic whitewashed hapless Czech Jan Hernych 6-0 6-0 on Thursday to reach the quarterfinals of the Swiss Indoors.

Djokovic, attempting to win his fourth ATP tournament of the season, was almost apologetic after needing only 52 minutes to dispatch the world number 59.

"It's hard to talk about a 6-0 6-0 result," said Djokovic. "The win is what counts. He didn't play very well today, actually, he made a lot of unforced errors and didn't put any pressure on me so I just kind of cruised through the match.

"I think I'm in quite good shape. I feel physically and mentally quite good on the court. I didn't play perfect tennis today; I needed his unforced errors as well. I think his level of performance was very low today."

Djokovic's quarterfinal opponent will be Switzerland's number two Stanislas Wawrinka who had a much tougher time to beat Finland's Jarkko Nieminen 7-5 2-6 6-1.

In the day's most dramatic match, fourth seed Marin Cilic saved three match points in the third set tiebreak before defeating Viktor Troicki 7-6 6-7 7-6 in just over three hours.

Frenchman Richard Gasquet also saved two match points in the second-set tiebreak before rallying to edge American John Isner 4-6 7-6 6-2.

Swiss wildcard Marco Chiudinelli reached the second ATP quarter-final of his career as he defeated compatriot and qualifier Michael Lammer 2-6 6-3 6-3.

World number one Roger Federer is firm favorite to win his hometown tournament for the fourth year in a row. He faces Russia's Evgeny Korolev in Friday's quarterfinal.

(Editing by Pritha Sarkar)