Roger Federer continued his serene progress at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships after beating Sergiy Stakhovsky on Thursday.
Top seed advances in Dubai Duty Free event
Roger Federer continued his serene progress at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships with a straight-sets win over on Sergiy Stakhovsky on Thursday
The top seed has yet to drop a set this week and continued his run through to the semi-finals with a 6-3 6-4 success in an hour and 12 minutes.
The world number two did not have it all his own way and was upset by Stakhovsky in the first set as the Ukrainian claimed a break in the opening game.
But the world number 43 was unable to hang onto his lead and Federer fought back impressively to move into the last four of the United Arab Emirates tournament.
"I try not to waste any energy," said federer on atptour.com. "The most important thing is to come through.
"At the end of the day you want to give yourself chances to win the trophy, and that's what I'm doing.
"I thought it was a tough match, tougher than the last couple, just because the start of the match, obviously that was tricky, the first sort of three, four games, where it could be 3-Love for him, could be 2-1 for me, could be 3-1, 2-All, or
whatever.
"So important to stay with him there, and then sort of finding the rhythm, how to play him, how is he playing, how is he serving, is he coming in, is he staying back, what's his strengths, what are his weaknesses?
"So it was just a matter of trying to figure him out, and I thought actually I played a really good match for the remainder of the game. You know, at the end, I'm obviously happy. It's been maybe a routine score, but, you know, I had to work for it tonight."
Federer, a four-time champion in Dubai, will now meet Richard Gasquet after he won his all-French quarter-final against Gilles Simon.
The unseeded Gasquet came from behind to beat his compatriot 5-7 6-2 6-4 in a match lasting a little over two hours.
