Federer, Davydenko land in French semis; Bryans lose

Jun 5, 2007, 17:42 GMT

Paris, France - Top-seeded and world No. 1 superstar Roger Federer and fourth-ranked Russian Nikolay Davydenko were a pair of quarterfinal winners Tuesday at the 2007 French Open.

Federer hiccuped in the second set on his way to an otherwise routine 7-5, 1-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory over ninth-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo on Court Chatrier at Roland Garros. Federer had won a record 36 straight sets in Grand Slam action before losing one against Robredo here on Day 10. The super Swiss had also won his last 11 Grand Slam matches in straight sets prior to Tuesday.

The 25-year-old Federer fired eight aces and broke Robredo's serve seven times en route to the predictable victory.

Federer is now a perfect 8-0 lifetime against Robredo, including a quarterfinal win at this year's Aussie Open. The 10-time Grand Slam champion currently holds the Wimbledon, U.S. Open and Aussie Open crowns and needs the French to complete a career Grand Slam. Legendary Aussie Rod Laver was the last man to hold all four major titles, which he did by sweeping the Grand Slam events in 1969.

The amazing Federer was last year's French Open runner-up to Spanish clay- court sensation Rafael Nadal.

Federer has reached at least the semifinals in his last 12 Grand Slam events and has appeared in the last seven major finals. He's won 10 of the last 15 Grand Slam tournaments overall.

The high-flying Federer will meet Davydenko in the semifinals here on Friday, as the Russian star drove past 19th-seeded Argentine Guillermo Canas 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 to reach his second semifinal here in the last three years. Davydenko landed in the French Open quarters a year ago.

Canas had won three of his previous four matches against Davydenko.

The steady 26-year-old Davydenko appeared in the Aussie Open quarterfinals back in January and was a U.S. Open semifinalist last September.

Davydenko is a dismal 0-8 lifetime against Federer, including 0-2 in Grand Slam events. The Russian succumbed the sublime Swiss in last year's Aussie Open quarters and U.S. Open semis.

The quarterfinals will conclude here on Wednesday, when a second-seeded Nadal meets his 23rd-seeded fellow Mallorcan Carlos Moya and sixth-seeded Serbian Novak Djokovic encounters unseeded Russian Igor Andreev. Nadal is the two-time defending champion here and is a perfect 18-0 in his career at Roland Garros, while the former top-ranked Moya captured his lone Grand Slam title right here back in 1998.

The 21-year-old Nadal is 3-2 lifetime against his good friend and mentor, the 30-year-old Moya, including a 2-1 mark on red clay.

Djokovic and Andreev have met one time, with the Serbian prevailing on clay in Portugal just last month.

In a stunning doubles upset on Tuesday, the mighty American twin Bryan brothers, Bob and Mike, came up quarterfinal losers against a ninth-seeded Czech tandem of Lukas Dlouhy and Pavel Vizner, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. The top-seeded Bryans had reached the final in eight of the previous nine Grand Slam events and titled here at Roland Garros back in 2003. The Bryans were the French Open runners-up the last two years and are the reigning Wimbledon and Aussie Open champs.

Reigning two-time French Open champions Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Max Mirnyi of Belarus also came up losers on Day 10, as the second-seeded duo was ousted by an unseeded pairing of Indian Mahesh Bhupathi and Czech Radek Stepanek 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (8-6).

© 2007 The Sports Network