Federer holds off Ebden to reach semifinal in Halle

HALLE WESTFALEN, GERMANY : Roger Federer stepped up his grass game as the start of Wimbledon looms, holding off Australian Matt Ebden 7-6(2), 7-5 in their quarter-final at the ATP Hale tournament on Friday.

With his world No 1 ranking on the line, the Swiss is sparing no effort to make sure he lifts a tenth title on Sunday.

Failure to win the grass title would send rival Rafael Nadal back to the top spot. The first set on Friday was decided in a tiebreaker while the Swiss had to twice recover from a break down in the second to secure a tight victory in 88 minutes.

NOT FAVOURITE TO WIN WIMBLEDON: DJOKOVIC

LONDON: Novak Djokovic does not consider himself among the favourites at next month’s Wimbledon and shares the popular view that defending champion Roger Federer is likely to win a record ninth trophy.

The Serbian claimed his first victory over a top-10 opponent since last May as he thrashed Grigor Dimitrov to reach the quarterfinals. “Roger is the clear favourite without a doubt. (Rafa) Nadal maybe hasn’t played well at Wimbledon by his standards, but he’s won it several times. He’s definitely one of the candidates to win the title,” he said.