Roger Federer continued his relatively comfortable passage through at the Indian Wells Masters, beating Jeremy Chardy in straight sets to reach the quarter-finals.

Federer, a five-time champion and last year's winner at the ATP 1000 event, is yet to drop a set at the tournament in 2018 and that continued with a 7-5 6-4 victory.

The Swiss 20-time grand slam champion broke once in each set to make it four wins in five meetings with Chardy, while improving to a 15-0 record this year.

Federer only served at 51 per cent, but his French opponent won just five return points – including none against his first serve.

That allowed Federer to repeatedly put Chardy under some pressure, although it took until the 11th game for him to clinch his first break.

The world number one broke again at 4-4 in the second set on his way to closing out another straight-sets win.

Federer will face Chung Hyeon in the last eight after the South Korean 23rd seed beat Pablo Cuevas 6-1 6-3.