Federer as usual
AFP, Hamburg
Top seed Roger Federer shrugged off a sleepy start to reach the final of the Hamburg Masters with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Russian Nikolay Davydenko on Saturday.The defending champion lost the first two games and saved break points to avoid going 3-0 down at the Rothenbaum before rousing himself to outplay the world number 20 with a beguiling mix of fierce ground-strokes and deft drop shots. In the final Federer will play Richard Gasquet, the French teenager who upset him in the Monte Carlo Masters quarterfinals last month. Gasquet thrashed Belgian Christophe Rochus 6-1, 6-1 to reach his second ATP Tour final. World number one Federer also made a poor start in his quarter-final win over Guillermo Coria on Friday and he admitted it was habit he needed to break with the French Open, the sole grand slam he has yet to win, only nine days away. "Such a start is always a handicap, it's not good," he told reporters. "I almost gave him two breaks and that's dangerous. My serve and my forehand let me down and I need to think about why that was the case." The Swiss, who has now won 40 of his 42 matches this year, added: "I was able to turn it around, but I didn't feel right in the beginning. I can't explain. He took advantage of that, then I started to use my all-round game to destabilise him." The Russian double-faulted to lose serve early in the second set and Federer took full advantage, confirming victory with a crunching forehand winner after 71 minutes on centre court. The 23-year-old has yet to drop a set in Hamburg, a tournament he won in 2002 and 2004. He is attempting to win his sixth ATP Tour title of the season on Sunday. Like Rochus, Gasquet had to qualify for the event but that was where the similarity ended. The 18-year-old, who lost to Spaniard Rafael Nadal in the Monte Carlo semi-finals after his win over Federer, clubbed his lightweight Belgian opponent into submission in a 56-minute exhibition of power tennis. Federer had three match points before losing to the teenager 6-7, 6-2, 7-6 in Monte Carlo and said he was looking forward to their rematch. "It's nice to have a second chance to get him," Federer said. "He's a very all-round player, similar to me. He can hit winners on both sides. "But it will be a best-of-five match which will be better for me. I'm more used to that than him."
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