Roddick sails into semi-finals

Federer started a new winning streak by beating No 4 Nikolay Davydenko 6-4, 6-3 to level his record at 1-1 and set up a Friday match with Roddick. Federer and Gonzalez are both in the running for the second semi-final spot from their Red Group.

In the Gold Group, second-ranked Rafael Nadal (1-1) will try to reach the semi-finals when he plays Thursday against No 3 Novak Djokovic, who is 0-2 and has been eliminated. David Ferrer (2-0) will meet Richard Gasquet (1-1).

Roddick committed only seven unforced errors and never faced a break point. He lost only 11 points in nine service games.

“You have good days where everything feels pretty clean, and this was one of those,” Roddick said.

The American, who will lead the US team in the Davis Cup final against Russia at the end of the month, was a question mark coming into Shanghai. But it looks like the time Roddick had to take off to deal with injury may be paying benefits. With no pressure to win — except for the rest of the field cheering for him to beat Federer — Roddick figures he will be loose.

“There’s no reason for me to be nervous,” Roddick said. “I can go out there and let it fly. The way I see it … I can just go out there and play and go for my shots and play aggressive and try to knock him out.”

Roddick ran off the first five games against Gonzalez, his confidence rising with each winner. And Gonzalez was nowhere near as sharp as he was in beating Federer two nights earlier.

Despite a few glitches along the way, including 39 unforced errors to just 23 winners, Federer looked extremely focused as he improved to 11-0 against Davydenko.

Federer, going for winners but sometimes missing badly, quickly converted his first break point and served for the set at 5-3 only to see Davydenko break back. But Davydenko’s errors handed the set to Federer when he doubled-faulted at deuce, then missed a forehand wide.

Federer cut his mistakes and had Davydenko in constant trouble in the second set. He ran off four games in a row to take command at 5-1. Davydenko got back one break, but Federer was just too good in the end.