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Summary Roger Federer and Juan Martin del Potro reached the semi-finals of Swiss Indoors.
Home hero Roger Federer won his 32nd match from his last 33 played at the Swiss Indoors on Friday, reaching the semi-finals in emphatic fashion over Benoit Paire, 6-2, 6-2.The 23-year-old French challenger knew he was in for the match of his life against the five-time tournament winner who was born in Basel.The force of the world number one and top seed was on full display in his 54-minute quarter-final rout of the outsider, a victory studded with seven aces and four breaks of serve.Federer will Saturday play another French opponent when he takes on fellow veteran Paul-Henri Mathieu, who reached his second semi-final since coming back in late January after a year away with a knee injury.Mathieu claimed his final-four spot with a 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/4) win over Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.Second seed Juan Martin del Potro struggled into the semi-finals by beating South African Kevin Anderson 3-6, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2, a day after qualifying for the year-ending ATP World Tour Finals.The Argentine will take a 4-1 lead into his match with French third seed Richard Gasquet, who kept alive his bid to secure one of the two remaining places in the eight-man event in London with a 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) defeat of sixth seed Mikhail Youzhny.Federer suffered his only recent defeat in Basel in 2009 when he lost the final to Novak Djokovic.But the Swiss was taking no chances in front of his sold-out public, sweeping the opening set against Paire in 29 minutes with two breaks.The second set was equally brief as Federer moved within two wins of his seventh trophy of the season.He broke Paires first two service games and sent down over a pair aces for a 5-1 lead before closing it out.Gasquet is also seeking one of two remaining spots in the London field, trailing three rivals as he stands adrift of compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Serb Janko Tipsarevic and Spains Nicolas Almagro.Of the three, Tsonga and Tipsarevic quit first-round matches due to injuries in Valencia while Almagro reached the quarter-finals but lost to David Ferrer on Friday.
