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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Defending champion Novak Djokovic needed less than an hour to advance at the Dubai Championships on Wednesday, while Roger Federer faced a struggle to seal his place in the quarterfinals. Top-seeded Djokovic swept to a 6-1, 6-3 win over 51st-ranked Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain in just 57 minutes, but fourth-seeded Federer had to see off a serious challenge from 48th-ranked Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic before coming through 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-3. "I have done really well today from the first to the last point," Djokovic said. "There was no major ups and downs, especially with the serve that helped me to win comfortably my service games, a lot of free points." In the first set, Djokovic raced to a 5-0 lead before Bautista Agut held serve to win his only game in the set. The only hiccup Djokovic had in the second set was when serving for the match at 5-2. He dropped his serve in that game but broke serve in the next to close out the match. Djokovic will play sixth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny, who beat British wildcard recipient James Ward 6-1, 7-6 (3). Federer came into his two hour, eight minute match with a 12-2 winning record over Stepanek. Hes now won their last nine meetings dating back to the 2008 Rome quarterfinals. "I got broken four times which is difficult, but its good to win those type of matches," said Federer, who faced eight break points against his serve. "Im happy to get through. "It didnt look good there for a while, but I got it done." Federer handled the first set with confidence, but started to falter as Stepanek became more aggressive in the second set. Federer managed to rebound from 4-2 down in the second set to force a tiebreaker -- where Stepanek raced into a 6-2 and a first set point when Federer double faulted. Stepanek won the set on his third set point when Federer netted a forehand. Stepanek also took an early 2-0 lead in the third set, but Federer rebounded to go ahead 5-2 to serve for the match. Federers serve was broken when he double faulted in the eighth game. Stepanek, however, surrendered his serve in the next game to allow Federer to move into the quarterfinals. Hell now face another Czech player in Lukas Rosol, who upset eighth-seeded Dmitry Tursunov of Russia 6-4, 7-6 (4). "Today was quite frustrating," Federer said. "I had momentum on my side at the beginning, but it was tough to keep it going. "After the first set I was under pressure the entire match." Like Djokovic, third-seeded Tomas Berdych had an easy path to the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine. Berdych, who will face fifth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals, has won his last eight matches. Despite Berdych having trouble with his first serve -- his percentage was a ghastly 37 per cent -- he controlled the match. He lost his serve once, and won 12 of the last 14 points. "I was working a little more on my return stats than on my service stats," Berdych said. "The main focus really for the next days is to get my percentage of the first serve back and really find a nice and sweet rhythm for my serve." Tsonga won his second-round match by walkover when his opponent, Nikolay Davydenko, withdrew with a rib injury. Seventh-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber was a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Andrea Seppi of Italy. Kohlschreiber will play Tunisian wild card Malek Jaziri, who beat Somdev Devvarman of India 6-3, 7-5. Tom Seaver Jersey . -- Martin Kaymer never lost sight of opportunity even amid so much evidence of trouble in the closing stretch Sunday at The Players Championship. Alex Colome Jersey . And follow TSN.ca right through Deadline Day for all the updates. 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Juan Francisco and Colby Rasmus both went deep for the Blue Jays, who are second in the American League with 34 home runs on the season.INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indiana Pacers pulled off one more bold move before Thursdays trading deadline. Less than three weeks after signing Andrew Bynum, Indiana sent Danny Granger and a 2015 second-round draft pick to Philadelphia in exchange for former first-round pick Evan Turner and forward Lavoy Allen. The teams confirmed the deal late Thursday after the NBAs league office approved it. The draft pick originally belonged to Golden State. Yahoo! Sports first reported the trade. Indiana now adds two young forwards -- players who could help them as they attempt to dethrone two-time defending NBA champion Miami and finally win their first NBA title. But they had to give up Granger, a fan favourite who was once considered the face of the franchise. "We thank Danny for his 8 1/2 seasons with us and we appreciate everything he did for us in his time here," president of basketball operations Larry Bird said in a statement. "We felt we needed to make this trade to strengthen the core unit and our bench. In Evan and Lavoy, we think we got two really good players that can help us and we look forward to what they can bring." What the rebuilding 76ers are getting is 30-year-old forward who missed all but five games last season with a knee injury and almost the first two months of this season with a strained left calf. Granger, who led Indiana in scoring for the five straight seasons before his knee injury, also has an expiring contract, and Philadelphia will get another pick in a draft many believe will be rife with talent. The trade also could help teams on both ends of the NBAs spectrum. Indiana has now picked up three former 76ers this month -- Bynum, Turner and Allen -- in an effort to add more scoring punch for their expected playoff showdown with Miami. The Pacers already have the best record in the East (41-13) and lead the Heat by two games in the chase for home-court advantage. Philadelphia, meanwhile, went into Thursday with the second-worst record in the league at 15-40 and now appears poised to make a run at surpassing Milwaukee for the worst mark in the NBA. In a fluurry of moves, the 76ers picked up a handful of draft picks, a few veterans and lost two of their top four scorers.dddddddddddd Turner, a 6-foot-7 guard, was the No. 2 overall draft pick in 2010 after winning college basketballs player of the year award. He was averaging a team-high 17.4 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists and could become a free agent after this season. He has averaged of 11.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game in 3 1/2 NBA seasons. Granger was averaging 8.3 points since returning from a strained left calf in mid-December, but he has career averages of 17.6 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.0 assists. He played in the 2009 All-Star Game and was voted the leagues Most Improved Player in 2008-09. The 76ers also sent Spencer Hawes, their top rebounder, to Cleveland earlier in the day. He was averaging 13.0 points and 8.5 rebounds in the final year of his contract. But Philadelphia certainly loaded up on second-round picks. In addition to getting Indianas choice, the 76ers also acquired two second-round picks, forward Earl Clark and centre Henry Sims in the deal with Cleveland and added guard Eric Maynor from Washington in a three-way deal that netted a 2016 second-round pick from Denver and a 2015- second-round pick from New Orleans. And the usually cost-conscious Pacers now look like they are loading up on big bodies for the playoffs. Theyve added the 7-foot Bynum, a former All-Star who missed all of last season in Philly because of knee injuries. This season, he signed with Cleveland as a free agent before getting traded to Chicago and then released. Indiana signed Bynum on Feb. 1 and though he has not played, coach Frank Vogel said he didnt expect Bynum to play for a few weeks. Allen, a 6-foot-9, 255-pound forward, was averaging 5.2 points and 5.4 rebounds with Philadelphia. To clear room on the roster, Indiana waived Orlando Johnson, a second-year guard they obtained in a draft night trade in 2012. "Orlando is a great kid," said Bird. "We appreciate everything hes done for us and hope he has a long and successful career." ' ' '