Roger Federer of Switzerland moved a step closer to winning his 10th title of 2006 with a 6-3, 7-6 (4) quarter-final win over American Robby Ginepri at the Madrid Masters on Friday.
In doubles play, Daniel Nestor of Toronto and Mark Knowles of the Bahamas, the No. 3 seeds, earned a 6-4, 6-4 semifinal win over the second-seeded team of Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Max Mirnyi of Belarus.
Federer advanced to the semifinals here for the first time since 2003 and will next face David Nalbandian, who avenged his defeat in the 2004 final by beating Marat Safin 6-4, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (2).
Federer _ who is vying to become the first player in the Open era to win 10 titles in three straight years _ tied Ivan Lendl's 24-year mark of successive 80-win seasons with the victory.
Federer broke Ginepri in the eighth game on his way to taking the first set in 27 minutes.
Both players held serve to take the second set to a tiebreaker, where Federer pressured Ginepri into three costly unforced errors.
Though Federer and Nalbandian have split their previous 12 encounters, the Argentine has only beaten Federer once since 2003 _ in last year's Masters Cup final.
Nalbandian reached the Madrid semifinals for the third straight year as Safin committed 74 unforced errors _ including four in the third-set tiebreaker.
Nalbandian had the decisive break in the third game of the first set.
After being given a warning by the umpire for hitting a ball into the crowd, Safin lost serve to open the second set. But the 49th-ranked Russian broke back in the fourth game when Nalbandian unsuccessfully challenged a line call.
The players continued to trade breaks, before Safin broke to level at 5-5 and then rally from triple break point down to lead 6-5. But he blew three set points to force the tiebreaker.
Safin, who served 21 aces in the match, converted his fourth set point when Nalbandian hit wide.
In the decider, Safin broke to lead 6-5, but Nalbandian broke right back and took the tiebreaker to close out the longest match at this year's tournament at two hours 57 minutes.
``I pushed very hard, and it wasn't the best way to do it, but I'm happy with the win,'' Nalbandian said. ``I can play better and have been with every round of the tournament. But tomorrow will be tough.''
Nalbandian improved to 2-6 against Safin and rises to sixth place in the race for the Masters Cup. Safin could have his revenge next month when Argentina and Russia meet in the Davis Cup final.
``He had his chances, I had mine, and he was a little bit luckier,'' Safin said. ``If I were fresher, I would have won in two sets without any problems.''
Defending champion Rafael Nadal of Spain was scheduled to play 11th-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic later Friday while 10th-seeded Fernando Gonzalez of Chile was to play 15th-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia.
© The Canadian Press, 2007
