Federer eases past Halle holder Mayer
Swiss superstar next meets Russian Khacharov
>> HALLE: Top seed Roger Federer reached the Halle Open semi-finals on Friday, beating defending champion Florian Mayer 6-3, 6-4 and edging closer to a ninth title at the Wimbledon tune-up event.
The 18-times Grand Slam champion, whose last title at Halle was in 2015, skipped the entire claycourt season after winning the Australian Open and claiming titles at Indian Wells and Miami this year, to prepare for grass.
He will face rapidly rising talent Karen Khachanov, who won his allRussian quarter-final against Andrey Rublev 7-6 (10/8), 4-6, 6-3 to reach his first tour semi-final of the year.
“It was important to be aggressive off the baseline and make him feel my variation and the power I can bring to the court,” said Federer, who is chasing his ninth title here. “I think I did it very well. I had lots of chances to even go up a double break in the second set.”
“I thought I was very calm out there, even in difficult moments. I was calm serving out the first and second sets. Those are always signs for me that things are slowly starting to fall into place nicely.”
Federer, who has yet to drop a set in Halle after losing in Stuttgart in his first match back last week, limited his serve-and-volley game against the German who is a fine returner and Mayer was broken quickly as his opponent won the first set.
The 33-year-old Mayer squandered two break-points at 1-0 in the second set and paid the price as Federer broke again and never relinquished his advantage to win in just over an hour.
Frenchman Richard Gasquet also reached the last four, edging past Dutchman Robin Haase, who had eliminated second seed Dominic Thiem in the previous round, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 and looked to be hitting top grasscourt form at just the right time.
Gasquet will next play Germany’s Alexander Zverev, last year’s finalist who has won three titles this season, after he muscled past baseliner Roberto Bautista-Agut 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (7/1), 6-1.
CILIC, DIMITROV IN SEMIS
Marin Cilic faces a Queen’s Club semifinal showdown with Gilles Muller, while Feliciano Lopez eyes revenge against Grigor Dimitrov in the other last four clash at the Wimbledon warm-up event.
Having lifted the Queen’s trophy in 2012, Cilic fancies his chances of adding a second title as the highest ranked player left in the draw following the shock exits of Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Milos Raonic.
World No.7 Cilic, who also finished as Queen’s runner-up in 2013, was pushed hard by Donald Young in Friday’s quarter-finals, but the former US Open champion fired 11 aces to see off the American 6-4, 7-5.
Luxumbourg’s Muller is through to his first Queen’s semi-final after defeating 2010 champion Sam Querrey 6-4, 7-6 (7/5).
Muller has won the first two ATP Tour titles of his career this year, helping him climb to a career-high ranking of 26, and he now has a seven-match winning streak on grass.
Dimitrov moved into the last four with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win against Russia’s Daniil Medvedev.
Lopez beat former Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych in three sets in the Stuttgart quarter-finals last week, and the Spanish world No.32 repeated that success with a marathon 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (1/7), 7-5 victory lasting two hours and 27 minutes.
KVITOVA IMPRESSES
Petra Kvitova, the two-time Wimbledon champion whose career was almost ended by a knife attack, reached her first semi-final since the incident seven months ago by winning her third straight-set match in Birmingham on Friday.
The popular, grasscourt loving Czech did that with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) win over Kristina Mladenovic, the fifth-seeded French player, achieved her last-four spot in what is only her second tournament since her comeback.
“It was very close, but I played better than I did before. It was just about one or two points and one or two breaks,” said Kvitova.
Kvitova next plays her longstanding friend Lucie Safarova, a fellow Czech who saved match points for the second time this week while surviving 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) in three hours against Daria Gavrilova.
Muguruza reached the semi-finals when Amercian opponent CoCo Vandeweghe retired with an ankle injury after falling earlier in the match.
The Spanish player had lost the first set 4-6 but levelled the match by pocketing the second, 6-4.
Muguruza next plays Ashleigh Barty, the 21-year-old unseeded Australian who was leading Camila Giorgi 5-2 when the Italian became the second injury retirement within an hour and a half with a left thigh strain.