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Federer in last four

BASEL: World No. 1 Roger Federer breezed into the Swiss Indoors semifinals on Friday but the home crowd’s hopes of an all-Swiss final were dashed when Novak Djokovic rallied to beat Stanislas Wawrinka.

Federer overcame Evgeny Korolev 6-3, 6-2 and will face unseeded compatriot Marco Chiudinelli, a 6-1, 6-3 winner over Frenchman Richard Gasquet, in Saturday’s semifinal.

Wawrinka, the other home quarterfinalist, won the first set against the World No. 3 and was a break up in the second. But the Serb broke back, won the second set tiebreak and eased through the third to win 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2.

Federer, aiming for a fourth successive title in his hometown tournament, broke serve twice in each set against the World No. 58, who was never really in the match.

Swiss No. 2 Wawrinka, in the other half of the draw to his more illustrious compatriot, looked as if he could upset Djokovic as he served six aces on his way to winning the first set.

With the fans getting even more excited, Wawrinka broke again in the seventh game of the second to put himself on the verge of a semifinal place.

But Djokovic broke straight back and went on to win the tiebreak 7-5. That took the wind out of the Wawrinka’s sails and the Serb rushed through the third set.

“It was a real test,” said Djokovic, who thrashed Jan Hernych 6-0, 6-0 on Thursday. “The first two matches I played here were without a lot of rhythm.

“He controlled the match most of the time until the end of the second set, then things changed, I got a lot of confidence and the third set was a different story,” said Djokovic.

The results:

At Basel: (Swiss Indoors): Quarterfinals: Roger Federer bt Evgeny Korolev 6-3, 6-2; Novak Djokovic bt Stanislas Wawrinka 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2; Marco Chiudinelli bt Richard Gasquet 6-1, 6-3.

At Valencia: (Valencia Open): Quarterfinals: Nikolay Davydenko bt Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-4, 7-6(3); Fernando Verdasco bt Tommy Robredo 6-3, 6-2. — Agencies

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