Federer cruises past Mayer into semis at Halle Open

Gunning for his eighth Halle crown, it only took about an hour for Roger Federer to run past Florian Mayer, as he served a bagel in the first set and then demolished the German in the tiebreaker of the next. Playing against his idol, Mayer was absolutely clueless in the first set and surrendered it six games to love. Federer looked impeccable; losing only four points on his first serve in the entire match.

The second set was a lot more competitive with the Federer racquet generating a lot more errors. But it was always going to be a long shot for the German, who handed Federer the tiebreak 7-1. Federer hit 9 aces and 33 glorious winners past Mayer. He would now face the ace machine Ivo Karlovic in the semi-final, who defeated Tomas Berdych in a thriller earlier.

In the bottom half of the draw, Kei Nishikori defeated Jerzy Janowicz in a three set encounter. Janowicz put up a fight in the second set winning it 7-5 but eventually succumbed to the all round game of the Japanese wonder.