Tennis: Federer clear favourite for third title

Roger Federer

NEW YORK - There is a lingering question hovering over the National Tennis Centre prior to the US Open men's semi-finals -- can anyone beat Roger Federer?

The list of his victims is long and distinguished.

"I guess he's human," Federer's quarter-final victim James Blake said yesterday, taking some solace after capturing a set from the eight-times grand slam champion for the first time in their five career meetings.

Federer will face Russian seventh seed Nikolay Davydenko in one semi-final while in-form American Andy Roddick will battle unseeded upstart Mikhail Youzhny of Russia in the other.

Davydenko, a tireless baseliner ranked sixth in the world, has lost to Federer in all seven of their career meetings but has taken a set from the Swiss in four of those encounters.

"You need to think you can beat him," said the 25-year-old Davydenko as he tries to stop the world's best player from winning his third consecutive title at Flushing Meadows.

While it might be difficult to find anyone who gives Davydenko a realistic chance to pull off an upset, Federer knows it would be foolish to look past Russia's top player.

"I think he's playing excellent," said Federer. "He's really improved a lot on hard courts. We all knew he could play on clay and everything.

"All of a sudden he kind of found another gear, more confidence from the baseline. He's also incredibly fit, never breaks down. He has much bigger belief now than he used to."

The other semi-final is an intriguing match-up between giant killer Youzhny and new Jimmy Connors protege Roddick, the 2003 Open champion searching for his second grand slam title.

A Roddick semi-final against world number two Rafael Nadal was highly anticipated but the Spaniard lost to Youzhny in the quarter-finals, an upset few people saw coming.

"I think Nadal was the favourite, but if you look at the way their games match up, I thought it could be a little bit of a test for Rafa," said Roddick.

"I thought a lot of it was dependent upon how Youzhny handled the situation. He played a great match. He played flawlessly. He's the man who deserves to be in the semis."

Federer and the ninth-seeded Roddick will be favoured to advance to Monday's final but a Youzhny upset cannot be discounted. He has split four career matches against Roddick.

When Roddick lifted the championship trophy following the 2003 Open most believed the 187cm, 86kg American would be a grand slam fixture.

But that was Roddick's lone grand slam triumph and marked the last time an American male won one of the four majors. Under the watchful eye of new coach Connors, Roddick is hungry again.

"It was a completely different scenario then," Roddick said of his Open triumph. "It was all new and exciting. I hadn't really had anything tough in my career yet. I kind of shot up real quick and then had a hot summer.

"Maybe I didn't realise what was going on. I think now maybe it's a bit more gratifying. I'm really excited."

- REUTERS