Tennis: No contest for Federer, Roddick waits

LONDON - If it was, as Lleyton Hewitt had suggested beforehand, a showdown between the two best players in the world, it was not much of a contest.

Roger Federer gave the Australian third seed a thorough thrashing, winning their Wimbledon semi-final 6-3 6-4 7-6 to set up a final against either second seed Andy Roddick of the United States or Sweden's Thomas Johansson.

Their match was halted by rain with Roddick leading 6-5 on serve in the first set.

Should top seed Federer win Sunday's men's final, he will join Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras as the only players in the professional era to have won a hat-trick of Wimbledon men's singles titles. 

Hewitt gave the Swiss less trouble than he had 12 months ago - when he won a set in their quarter-final - before being bundled out of the tournament like Federer's 34 previous opponents on a grasscourt.

"I have the feeling I can always hang with him," said Federer with characteristic modesty. "Eventually, with the variation in my game, I get the errors out of him.

"I don't know if I played really great or if I played good. It's hard. I just played right and good at the right moments.

"This performance is definitely good enough to win Wimbledon, that's for sure."

Hewitt is probably justified in feeling aggrieved that the decision to seed him three, not two as he is ranked, has probably cost him an appearance in his second Wimbledon final.

But the 2002 champion is deluding himself if he believes that by avoiding Federer until Sunday, he would have had any more chance of winning.

Federer happily traded groundstrokes, volleys, serves and smashes -- whatever Hewitt fancied in fact -- safe in the knowledge that he was always going to win.

After two sets of scampering around like a demented puppy, Hewitt's smarting, sweat-streaked face told its own story while at the other end of the court Federer went about his business with an air of priestly calm.

A SNIFF

The third set tiebreak at least offered Hewitt a shortcut to success but he never had a sniff in that either, losing it 7-4 with a netted forehand that gave Federer his win.

"It's not easy," admitted the Australian after his eighth consecutive loss to the Swiss. "I felt like I've lifted my game the last 18 months or so. I've got no doubt that I feel like I'm the second best player going around right at the moment.

"It's just that the best player going around is pretty bloody good."

Earlier in the day women's top seed Lindsay Davenport took 224 seconds to complete a rain-delayed 6-7 7-6 6-4 semi-final victory over French third seed Amelie Mauresmo.

Resuming 5-3 up in the third, the 29-year-old held the second game on serve to love to move through to Saturday's final where she will face compatriot Venus Williams for the 27th time in their careers.

- REUTERS