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Federer destroys Berdych in BNP Paribas Open

Xinhua, March 21, 2015 Adjust font size:

Bidding for a fifth BNP Paribas Open title, world No. 2 Roger Federer reached his ninth semifinal on Friday with a ruthless 6-4, 6-0 dismissal of Tomas Berdych at the ATP Masters 1000 event.

Federer made his move in the seventh game of the first set. The Czech was unable to fend off Federer as the Swiss broke for a 4-3 lead and went on to win the first set.

In the second set, the ninth-seeded Berdych was under pressure. The Swiss broke in the first game and raced to a 4-0 lead, courtesy of a Berdych double fault. Federer again broke the Czech in the fifth and served out for victory in 69 minutes.

The 33-year-old Federer dropped just eight points on serve and hit 21 winners to just 11 unforced errors. The 29-year-old Berdych served five double faults and didn't earn any break point against the Swiss.

"He was doing pretty much everything perfect ... he was doing pretty much everything on the top level, and there was not much that I can do," Berdych said to media.

"It was great," Federer said after improving his career record against Berdych to 13-6, "he didn't have his best serving day and I was able to get the upperhand from the baseline. From that I was able to control the match. It gives you extra confidence to beat a top guy like that."

The second seed has a 15-1 record on the season. With his fourth round victory over Jack Sock, the Swiss, who is making his 15th appearance, became the first player to hit 50 match wins in the desert. Endi