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Federer to play Djokovic at Shanghai Masters semifinal

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Swiss star Roger Federer stunned Robin Soderling of Sweden 6-1,6-1 to book a meeting against world number two Novak Djokovic at Shanghai Masters semifinal on Friday.

"Djokovic is really hard to beat," said Federer after the match.

Roger Federer of Switzerland waves to the crowd after the quarterfinal match against Robin Soderling of Sweden at the Shanghai Masters ATP tennis tournament in Shanghai, China, Oct. 15, 2010. Federer won 2-0. [Fan Jun/Xinhua]

Federer won an easy match. Solderling had dropped 13 of the two's 14 previous encounters, but the one victory came out in this year. At 2010 French Open, the Swede beat the 16-Grand-Slam holder 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 on his way to the final.

However, Federer refused to see the accident again. He lost only two games all-through the match, finishing the match within one hour.

After losing the match, Soderling failed to become the fifth player to seal a place at London ATP Finals on Friday.

Solderling double faulted to open the first set, but he managed to find back his rhythm and knocked down the first game after saving one break point. Federer succeeded in breaking in his second attempt, hitting a backhander to change the score to 2-1. The Swiss superstar, who had enough rest thank to two easy wins in the previous rounds, broke two more times to close the first set 6-1.

Federer's perfect form made it impossible for his opponent to hold serve. He kept Soderling at love to finish the match 6-0.

"Robin is a very good player," said Federer, who harvested the 14th victory over Soderling. "Today is a good day for me, and another day will be good day for him."

Djokovic overwhelmed unseeded Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-2, 6-3.

The world number two Serb, who defended his China Open title in Beijing earlier this week, moved one step closer to his third Asian tournament victory in the 2010 season.

Losing only eight games in his previous two matches at the tournament, the 23-year-old hadn't yet met any real challenge, and Garcia-Lopez was not the right one who could threaten him more.

As the top-ranked player left, Djokovic came into the stadium with a 3-0 head-to-head record against his opponent.

Garcia-Lopez, making his first quarterfinal appearance in ATP 1000 Masters, couldn't organize effective defence to resist Djokovic's powerful serves in the opening set, broken twice to lose the first set 2-6.

Djokovic displayed dominant performance both in serves and long rallies in the second set. Though Garcia-Lopez finished several wonderful backhanders, he was unable to hold serve in the fourth game, and found himself trailing 1-4 after five games.

Djokovic earned himself three straight match points when it got to 5-3, converting the first to conclude the match 6-3.

"It's a great tournament," said the Serb after the match. "I keep on doing the good job here."

After winning the China Open, Djokovic only needed two more single matches to claim the second consecutive tournament in China.

But he also had doubles to play.

"I never played three matches in a day, I think," said Djokovic, who was scheduled two possible double matches on Friday, which meant he would possible play three matches in one day.

"I still wish somebody to win one match doubles if we gonna play another one."

"Robin and Roger are two different players, obviously," said the second seed. "If I play as well as I did these days, I think I will have a good chance against both of them."

In Friday's other two quarterfinals, Andy Murray of Britain beat 12th seed French Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-2, 6-2, while Juan Monaco from Argentina defeated world number 12 Jurgen Melzer of Austria, 6-7(6), 7-5, 6-2, becoming the only unseeded player in the semifinal.

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