Top Three Seeds Reach Dubai Semi-finals For First Time In Tournament's History

© Dubai Duty Free Tennis ChampionshipsRoger Federer is a four-time former champion in Dubai, playing here for the first time since 2008.

Federer, Djokovic and Berdych set to thrill fans

Top seeds Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are now just one match away from a final showdown at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships after achieving difficult quarter-final victories on Thursday. Federer defeated Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-3 6-4 and Djokovic beat Florian Mayer 7-5 6-1, but both were placed under early pressure.

With third seed Tomas Berdych overcoming Philipp Petzschner 7-5 6-4, it is the first time in the 19-year history of the tournament that the top three seeds have reached the semi-finals. Joining them is unseeded Richard Gasquet, who earned a 5-7 6-2 6-4 win over compatriot Gilles Simon.

Federer dropped his opening service game, and although he immediately broke back he then fell behind 0-40 in the third game before responding like the champion he is, holding serve with four consecutive aces. Another break for 5-3 left him serving for the set, and he then took an early lead in the second, breaking for 2-1.

But Stakhovsky refused to fold, and he held one break point to get back on serve at 3-2 and two more at 4-3, drawing out the best that Federer could produce. Then, as so often with the champions, Federer made the stronger finish, holding three match points on Stakhovsky’s serve at 5-3 before closing out the match on his own serve with his fourth match point.

"I thought it was a tough match, tougher than the last couple, just because of the start of the match, obviously that was tricky," said Federer. "So it was important to stay with him there, and then sort of finding the rhythm, how to play him, how is he playing, how is he serving, is he coming in, is he staying back, what are his strengths, what are his weaknesses…

"So it was just a matter of trying to figure him out, and I thought actually I played a really good match for the remainder of the game. I'm obviously happy. It may be a routine score, but I had to work for it tonight," added Federer.

Earlier, Djokovic had also struggled at the beginning of his match with Mayer, losing his opening service game and then facing two points at 0-2 to go down a second service break. But he eventually held on his fourth game point and finished the set strongly.

He broke Mayer at love to level at 5-5, held off a break point in the next game with an ace and then broke Mayer’s serve at love again to take the set. With that difficult set under his belt, Djokovic claimed the second by winning the last five games.

"It was a very slow start," said Djokovic. "Quite different conditions from last night's match. The ball was going faster today, and he took it to me from the start. But when I needed to play well and needed to keep the ball in the court, I did. The match turned around from the break on 5-4."

Djokovic will now play Berdych, who had to fight hard for his victory over Petzschner as the first set stretched to over an hour and the entire match took a challenging one hour 47 minutes.

Both players dropped their opening service games to love and four of the first five games went against serve. Petzschner then fought off four set points at 5-4 with some ferocious serving, and he then held three break points of his own at 5-5 to serve for the set.

But it was the number three seed’s turn to stave off the threat, eventually holding with an ace and then breaking in the next game on his seventh set point when his return forced a backhand error.

After Berdych beat off two break points in the opening game of the second set both players held serve with ease, until another Berdych return forced Petzschner to net a volley to set up match point. Petzschner then netted a forehand on the next point.

Action continues at the Dubai Tennis Stadium from 2pm on Friday. The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships is owned and organised by Dubai Duty Free and held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.