Nalbandian into semis as Federer hits 80 mark

A bleary-eyed Roger Federer made hard work of his 80th win of the year, beating Argentina's Guillermo Coria 6-0 1-6 6-2 at the season-ending Masters Cup yesterday.

Coria's countryman David Nalbandian earlier underlined his title credentials by pulverising Croatian Ivan Ljubicic 6-2 6-2 to join Federer and Russia's Nikolay Davydenko in the last four.

Argentina's Gaston Gaudio plays Chile's Fernando Gonzalez today for the remaining semi-final spot.

Runaway world number one Federer survived a scare against Coria before extending his winning streak to 34 matches.

Federer's preparation for the match involved him staying awake until 4.30 a.m. watching Switzerland's soccer World Cup qualifier against Turkey.

"I couldn't believe they were showing it," shrugged Federer. "I thought I might as well take it while it's here."

Federer joked that he had let the match go to three sets to get in some extra practice after missing Madrid, Basel and Paris through injury before arriving in Shanghai.

"I like to stay out on the court for three sets," he smiled. It's good for the game, absolutely."

The stylish Swiss unexpectedly lost his way in the second set after demoralising Coria in the first.

But normal service was resumed in the third set, Federer securing the decisive break to go up 4-2 before a double-fault from Coria gave him victory after one hour, 24 minutes.

Federer, who has just recovered from an ankle injury he suffered in practice last month, is bidding for a third straight Masters title.

Only Ilie Nastase in 1971-73 and Ivan Lendl in 1985-87 have won three in a row.

Federer, whose win-loss record is now 80-3 for the year, is just two wins away from equalling John McEnroe's professional-era mark of 82-3 for a season in 1984.

"I'm not 100 per cent fitness-wise," acknowledged Federer. "That's maybe why I'm struggling a bit. I'm not really worried about it for the weekend."

Coria, wearing a skin-tight orange "Spiderman" shirt, called the trainer to treat his left ankle after going 5-0 behind in the first set, provoking howls of protests from the Chinese fans.

No shame

Tournament organisers were frustrated by the sudden withdrawals due to injury of Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal earlier this week.

Andy Roddick, Marat Safin and Lleyton Hewitt were all no-shows at the $4.45 million tournament at Qi Zhong stadium.

"I wanted to stop playing," admitted Coria, who finished winless in the Red Group.

"But for the respect I have for Roger Federer... and for the fans, I felt I had to give it my best."

The performance of the day was Nalbandian's demolition of world number eight Ljubicic.

"If I could play like that all the time I would be ranked a lot higher," smiled the world's 12th-ranked player. "But it's not always easy to do. Maybe it's (down to) motivation."

Ljubicic took his defeat philosophically. "There's nothing to be ashamed of - he was playing unbelievable," said the towering Croatian.

"I was serving 220 (kph) and the balls were coming back like I was serving 120."