Federer reaches Basel semifinal
World tennis number two Roger Federer has beaten Radek Stepanak 6-3 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the Swiss Indoors tournament in Basel.
Federer’s victory against the 39th-ranked Czech on Friday set up a semifinal match against Andy Roddick of the United States on Saturday.
Fourth-seeded Roddick defeated David Nalbandian of Argentina in straight sets. The other semifinal will be between two Serbs: Novak Djokovic and Viktor Troicki.
The Swiss Indoors is celebrating its 40-year jubilee this year. Federer won it for three years in a row before he was beaten by Djokovic in last year’s final.
Also on Friday it was reported that world number one Rafael Nadal of Spain had withdrawn from the Paris Masters for medical reasons. With Nadal's withdrawal, Federer has been given the number one seed. The tournament starts on Sunday.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
Contributions under this article have been turned off. You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.