FED READY FOR PARIS

ROGER FEDERER did enough on his return to clay-court tennis to suggest that he will not be turning up at Roland Garros later this month just for a lap of honour. The 37-year-old Swiss had two match points in another breathless encounter at the Caja Magica before losing 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 to Austria’s Dominic Thiem, the Austrian considered the biggest threat to Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic at the French Open. Thiem held him off to take the pivotal tiebreak 13-11, and he will now meet Djokovic in the first semi-final. ‘It has been a good week but losing when you have match points is the worst,’ Federer said afterwards.