Tennis: Federer reaches Swiss Indoors final

Roger Federer made short work of Andy Roddick this time, winning 6-2, 6-4 in the Swiss Indoors semifinals on Saturday in their first rematch since the epic 2009 Wimbledon final.

Federer broke Roddick's serve twice in each set and fired 13 aces to the American's four before completing victory in 69 minutes.

"He couldn't serve an ace for a long time and that's always a good sign you're getting a decent read on his serve," Federer said.

Last time at Wimbledon, he broke Roddick once at the 39th attempt to win 16-14 in the fifth set after 4 hours, 16 minutes.

"It's unfortunate my bad serving day came today," Roddick said. "I was just a little bit out of rhythm. You can't afford to do that against Roger."

The top-seeded Swiss improved his career record to 20-2 against Roddick.

"For some reason it always kind of works well for me against Andy," Federer said.

Only retired greats Boris Becker and Ivan Lendl have more victories against a single opponent in the past 30 years. Becker had a 25-10 hold on Stefan Edberg, and Lendl held a 22-13 edge on Jimmy Connors and 21-15 over John McEnroe.

Federer will face Novak Djokovic in Sunday's final after the defending champion beat his Serbian Davis Cup teammate Viktor Troicki 7-6 (4), 6-4.

"It's obviously a difficult final," said Federer, whose streak of three Basel titles was ended by Djokovic. "It's as tough as they come on a quick indoor court."

The Federer-Roddick reunion played out very differently 16 months on.

Roddick lost serve immediately when he netted a forehand. He then had to save two more Federer chances to break before getting on the board trailing 3-1.

Federer won the first 10 points on his own serve, then fended off two break chances for Roddick with volleyed winners.

He clinched the set with a break when his forehand crosscourt pass beat the American's approach to the net.

Roddick broke to start the second set when Federer mistimed a topspin forehand.

In Roddick's next service game he fired his first two aces, but Federer leveled at 3-3 when converting his third break chance with a backhand volley.

Federer needed a single match point. A smooth forehand from the baseline again flashed past Roddick as he struggled to close down Federer's angle for the crosscourt pass.

Roddick's consolation was rising to seventh in the points race to reach the eight-man ATP World Tour Finals in London.

"Looking back over this week, there's more positives than negatives," said Roddick, who can clinch a spot in London at the Paris Masters, which starts Sunday.

The second-seeded Djokovic was pushed harder for his victory Saturday. He saved three set points in the first trailing 6-5, 40-0 on Troicki's serve.

"I was very lucky to get out of the first set and I regained my confidence," said Djokovic, who forced a tiebreaker after starting a run of winners with a blistering forehand return.

"I closed my eyes and hit it as hard as I could. That's what we were joking about," he said.

Longtime friends, Djokovic and Troicki walked off court laughing with an arm around each other's shoulders. They will likely play singles for Serbia when it hosts the Davis Cup final against France on Dec. 3-5.

Djokovic will play in his fourth final this season, with wins in Dubai and Beijing and a U.S. Open final loss to Rafael Nadal, after ousting Federer in the semifinals.

Federer has a 3-4 finals record this year, with wins at the Australian Open, Cincinnati Masters and Stockholm Open.

- AP