DUBAI (Reuters) - Five-times champion Roger
Federer brushed aside Lukas Rosol on Thursday to set up a mouthwatering
semi-final clash with Novak Djokovic in the Dubai Championship.
Federer
eased through 6-2 6-2 while holder Djokovic enjoyed a walkover when quarter-final
opponent Mikhail Youzhny withdrew through illness.
Third seed Tomas
Berdych, who finished runner-up to Djokovic in 2013, faces seventh seed Philipp
Kohlschreiber in the other semi-final.
Berdych
overcame fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4 6-3 while Kohlschreiber beat
Tunisian wildcard Malek Jaziri 6-2 6-3.
Federer holds
a 16-15 lead in head-to-head matches with Djokovic but the Serb has won their
last three meetings, including their most recent match at the ATP World Tour
Finals in London in November.
"We know
each other very well, and we've played each other everywhere and all the
surfaces, you name it," Federer told atpworldtour.com.
"I think
we always play the match-up actually very good, because we play explosive,
aggressive tennis, so there is always some shot-making going on.
"I'm
looking forward to the match. One match, best of three sets on a court like
this, it's a bit of ‘let's see what happens', anyway. We both know that."
Federer started
slowly against Rosol, the man who knocked Rafa Nadal out of the second round at
Wimbledon in 2012, losing his opening service game for an early 0-2 deficit.
Any hopes of
the Czech pulling off another huge shock were short-lived with the Swiss
reeling off the next six games.
The second set started where the
first ended with Federer breaking Rosol twice in his opening three service
games as the 32-year-old comfortably reached his third semi-final in his three
tournaments so far this season.
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