The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Federer enters semifinals; Blake bows out

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Federer enters semifinals; Blake bows out

BASEL: Roger Federer dismissed unseeded Italian Simone Bolelli 6-2, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the Swiss Indoors on Friday to maintain his bid for a third straight triumph in his hometown tennis tournament.

Federer’s route to the final was also made easier — on paper at least — when his expected semifinal opponent, American fourth seed James Blake, suffered a 6-4, 7-6 defeat by Spain’s Feliciano Lopez.

Lopez, the World No. 39, has lost all six of his previous meetings with Federer who has yet to face a seeded player at this week’s tournament.

After stuttering performances in his first two matches this week, the World No. 2 was in full control against Bolelli, breaking the Italian twice in the opening set.

Following a further break in the second, Bolelli did well to save three match points on his serve at 5-2 but could do nothing more as Federer took the final game to love, ending the match with two aces and a service winner.

Bopanna-Mirnyi advance

At St. Petersburg, India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Belarussian partner Max Mirnyi overcame a second-set lapse to advance to the semifinals of $1,049,000 St. Petersbug Open here. The unseeded pair of Bopanna and Mirnyi tamed the formidable Russian pair of Igor Kunitsyn and former World No. 1 Marat Safin 6-4, 3-6, 13-11 in one hour and 15 minutes to move to the next level.

The Indo-Belarusian pair converted one of the four break points and saved the only break point they faced to take the first set.

Their rivals curbed their errors and converted both the breakpoints that Bopanna and Mirnyi offered to draw parity in the match.

However, the Bopanna-Mirnyi combine held their nerves in the decisive super tie-breaker to walk away with the match.

They next face giant killers in Slovakian Michal Mertinak and Croatia’s Lovic Zovko, who stunned the second seeded Czech pair of Martin Damm and Pavel Vizner in their opening round.

Roddick out

At Lyon, Swede Robin Soderling needed 20 aces and two tiebreaks to beat top seed Andy Roddick 7-6, 7-6 and reach Lyon ATP tournament semifinals. Soderling, seeded seventh in the indoor event, won both tiebreaks 7-5 to win in one hour and 23 minutes. Both players held serve throughout a match in which Roddick fired 22 aces but showed signs of nerves at times, notably when he double-faulted in the second set tiebreak.

Soderling, who won the tournament in 2004, now leads the American 2-0 in career meetings after beating the former world number one in February in Memphis.

The results:

At Basel: ATP Swiss Indoors: Quarterfinals: Roger Federer bt Simone Bolelli 6-2, 6-3; Feliciano Lopez bt James Blake 6-4, 7-6(7); Juan Martin Del Potro bt Igor Andreev 6-4, 7-5.

At Lyon: ATP Lyon Grand Prix: Quarterfinals: Robin Soderling bt Andy Roddick 7-6(5), 7-6(5); Gilles Simon bt Josselin Ouanna 6-3, 7-5; Jo-Wilfried Tsonga bt Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-6(5), 6-1; Julien Benneteau bt Steve Darcis 6-3, 6-2.

At St. Petersburg: ATP St. Petersburg Open: Singles Quarterfinals: Andy Murray bt Janko Tipsarevic 7-6(5), 7-5; Andrey Golubev bt Mischa Zverev 6-7(3), 6-4, 7-6(4); Victor Hanescu bt Michail Elgin 6-1, 6-4. Doubles Quarterfinals: Rohan Bopanna & Max Mirnyi bt Igor Kunitsyn & Marat Safin 6-4, 3-6, 13-11.

At Linz: WTA Linz Open: Quarterfinals: Marion Bartoli bt Alona Bondarenko 6-3, 5-7, 6-1; Ana Ivanovic bt Flavia Pennetta 6-4, 6-4; Vera Zvonareva bt Alize Cornet 7-5, 6-1; Agnieszka Radwanska bt Nadia Petrova 6-3, 6-2.

At Luxembourg: WTA Luxembourg championships: Quarterfinals: Sorana Cirstea bt Daniela Hantuchova 7-6(2), 6-2; Caroline Wozniacki bt Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-1, 7-6(7); Elena Dementieva bt Amelie Mauresmo 6-4, 6-0. — Agencies

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