The clay court season was very difficult for Roger but now its back to grass at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle which is one of my favourite tennis venues. Roger has won here five times before and was honoured this year with a street named after him.

   

Roger started Halle quite well, beating Florian Mayer 6-4 7-5, firing 11 aces and prevented the German from converting his only break point opportunity. The grass courts at Halle are pretty fast and Roger adapted well from clay courts to play some entertaining rallies. 

“I'm very happy with the way things went today. I obviously knew playing against Mayer in the first round was going to be tricky,” Federer said. “He's in the Top 30 and has been to the quarter-finals of Wimbledon. And I've played him here on grass before, so I know how tough he can be.

“But I felt I was focussed, was moving well and bascially, didn't have any letdowns on my serve. I was able to create a few more chances than he did. I'm through with my first victory on grass this year and I hope it's not my last.”


Roger played Canadian Milos Raonic in the quarterfinals, surviving in tight match 6-7(4) 6-4 7-6(3). Roger was extremely dominant on his service games not facing any break points at all. The first set statistically should of been his as he had won more points overall than Raonic. Raonic had a mini break in the tiebreak and a few more big serves gave him the first set.

Now Roger had been in a similar situation in his last match with Raonic in Madrid this year. A set down, but all Roger needed was a crucial break in the 2nd set to level the match. Both players held all their service games in the deciding set to stage a tiebreaker. It was Roger who got the mini break this time and he won the tiebreak 7-3 to reach the semifinals. 

Roger and Milos have met 3 times this year and all encounters were tight three set matches with Roger having to recover from a set down. 

   

Roger now will face Mikhail Youzhny who beat Stepanek in three sets. In the other half of the draw Tommy Haas is to play Philip Kohlschreiber in the semifinals. Kohlschreiber upset Nadal in straight sets and is defending champion here so I think he can beat Haas who also won here in 2009. Anyway, Roger can be on cruise mode for the rest of tournament, no one can really stop him!