Federer and Davydenko move into semi-finals 05/06/2007 00:00

PARIS, June 5, 2007 (AFP) - Roger Federer will take a perfect 8-0 career record into his French Open semi-final clash against Nikolay Davydenko after the dramatically contrasting players moved into the last four on Tuesday.

Federer dropped a Grand Slam set for the first time since the 2006 US Open final but still powered through to his third successive Roland Garros semi-final with a 7-5, 1-6, 6-1, 6-2 win over Tommy Robredo.

The top seed overcame the rare second set lapse to romp to his eighth consecutive win over the Spanish ninth seed.

Federer will now take on Russian fourth seed Davydenko who beat Guillermo Canas, the 19th seeded Argentinian, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 for a place in the final.

Amongst his eight wins over the 26-year-old Russian was their only meeting on clay in Hamburg in 2005.

"Davydenko is a great player and I've had great matches against him," said Federer who was no doubt happy not to be facing Canas who has been responsible for two of his four defeats in 2007.

"Nikolay has made great headway in recent years."

Tuesday's victory also kept Federer firmly on course for an widely-anticipated title showdown on Sunday against double defending champion Rafael Nadal who plays his quarter-final against Carlos Moya on Wednesday.

"It's never easy to play Tommy especially on clay, it's his favourite surface," said Federer.

"Sadly I had too many errors in the second set but overall it was a good test.

"It was very windy in the second set. He was solid and hit his forehand really well. I hit it too flat and I didn't use the wind to my advantage.

"I couldn't react to it but I got a good start in the third set and I was on a roll again."

Worryingly for Federer's rivals, that key third set was wrapped up in just 20 minutes.

Davydenko reached his second French Open semi-final by seeing off Canas who had been hoping to crown his comeback from a 15-month drug ban by reaching the Roland Garros final.

"I was surprised we played such a long first set," said Davydenko.

"I thought we might not finish it until tomorrow but I prayed that I could win in three sets."  

Davydenko will be playing in his second semi-final having lost to Argentina's Mariano Puerta in 2005.

On Tuesday, he and Canas slugged out a 70-minute first set which took the heart out of the Argentinian as Davydenko was rewarded for his aggressively positive approach.

He ended the quarter-final having hit a huge 64 unforced errors but an equally telling 62 winners.

The last quarter-final to be played on Wednesday will feature Serbia's Novak Djokovic against unseeded Russian Igor Andreev.

The winner of that tie will meet either Nadal or Moya for a place in the final.

Copyright AFP

Subject: French news