By DPA
New York : Roger Federer extended his near-total domination of Andy Roddick as he crushed the American for the 14th time in 15 matches to storm into the semi-finals of the US Open tennis 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-4), 6-2.
The Wednesday night blowout between two warriors – each dressed head to toe in black – handed the Swiss top seed his 11th consecutive win on the runaway series with Roddick, whose only Grand Slam title came at the same event four years ago.
It was also back in 2003 that Roddick earned his lone victory over the flawless Swiss, who is moving closer to a fourth straight trophy in New York.
Roddick has now lost six Grand Slam encounters with the world number one, including three finals, the last of which was at the same event a year ago.
Federer, who has not lost to an American opponent for more than four years, is unbeaten in Grand Slam quarter-finals, and has stretched his all-time record streak of successive semi-final appearances at majors to 15.
The match was played to a high standard with Federer still managing to comfortably blunt any attack off the racket of the big-serving fifth seed.
“I tried to hang in there,” said the modest winner, who out-aced Roddick 15 to 14. “I didn’t have a break point until the third set.
“That shows how close it was, I could have lost the first two (tiebreak) sets. It was a tough match, but I came through in the end.
“I was happy keeping the points short against him, I think we both played pretty well.”
Federer will take a 9-0 record into his Saturday semi-final against Nikolay Davydenko after the Russian beat 10th seed Tommy Haas 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 to reach the last four without dropping a set.
“I’ve got a pretty good record against him,” said Federer. “I’ve never lost. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. The guy can play very well, he’s been tough this season.”
Davydenko won the first two sets against three-time Grand Slam semi-finalist Haas, then stopped the rot in the third after five consecutive breaks of serve between the pair.
The Russian struck in excess of 40 winners to go through.
“If I play less then that is good for me,” he said. “I need to be strong physically to take on Federer. I need to play perfect.”