Roger Federer is through to a tenth Gerry Weber Open semi-final after efficiently disposing of German Florian Mayer in a little over an hour on Stadion Court 6-0, 7-6 (1).
The tournament takes on added impetus for all the players as it has been upgraded to a Masters 500 event and it looks as if the Swiss maestro is on course once again to lift the title here in Halle after producing another world-class display.
The top-seed has made nine consecutive finals in Germany winning seven of those and this victory marks the 33-year-old's 49th on the green turf in Halle. Unprecedented stats from a man who has achieved it all.
Stats were definitely not in Mayer's favour coming into today's contest as Federer had won all five of their meetings on tour, two of which had come on the same very court.
The German is still finding his way back into the tour after 12 months out with a thigh injury which has seen the once ranked 18 German fall to new depths at 487 in the world.
He won his first match at the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart but since then has lost seven out of his last eight matches but something about his home tournament brings out the best in Mayer.
Four quarter-finals in his last five visits and two good wins over Jan-Lennard Struff in round one and Steve Johnson in round two had given Mayer a lot of hope and backed by a partisan crowd he took to the challenge of downing the great man.
A challenge made all the more difficult as Federer went nuts in the first set ripping through six games in a row without reply to silence the large German faithful. The Swiss was in sublime form, serving with authority and finding immediate depth and accuracy on all his ground strokes.
Mayer improved dramatically in the second set but Federer always had him at arms length. The German was rewarded for his spirit to force a tie-break but was outclassed once again winning only one point as the maestro conducted yet another world class victory.
Federer now plays the big serving threat of Ivo Karlovic in the last four in what is expected to be a much tougher test for Federer as he bids for an outstanding eighth title in Halle and a fifteenth grass court title in all.
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