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Federer brushes off downpours to reach Estoril semi-finals

18/04/2008

World number one Roger Federer cruised into the semi-finals of the Estoril Open after beating Frederico Gil in straight sets.

The Swiss had to cope with two half-hour rain breaks to secure his 6-4 6-1 victory, which puts him on course for his first title of the season.

Federer looked like he was going to be in for a tough test as the Portuguese, who has started this season strongly if unspectacularly and was looking to impress on his home turf, held his serve for the opening exchanges of the match.

However, after the players came back on after rain stopped pay at 2-2, Federer took the initiative and broke to go 4-2 up.

Despite the 146-seed immediately breaking back, the favourite broke back himself to take the first set 6-4.

Gil gained the upper hand in the second set immediately, managing to break Federer's serve to go 1-0 up, but the latter got even straight away before going on to establish his dominance, coming out after another downpour to give the Portuguese crowd a timely display of his abilities.

Following his quarter-final victory against Romania's Victor Hanescu, Federer told reporters that he was happy with his game, stating that he is now back to playing solid offensive tennis.

This latest victory was only the second time that he was watched by his new coach Jose Higueras.