Top seed Roger Federer struggled to a 6-3 3-6 6-2 victory over Spaniard Nicolas Almagro on Friday to reach the semi-finals of the Cincinnati Masters. The world number one was unusually erratic as he dropped his first set of the week before recovering his poise to set up a clash with Lleyton Hewitt.
"I actually think I played better today than I did yesterday," Federer told reporters. "The only problem was I had one really bad game which cost me the second set. "I still thought my serving was good today and I hit better from the baseline."
Federer, looking for his 50th career title, broke in the sixth game but immediately dropped his serve before breaking for a second time to take the opening set. Hewitt, twice a runner-up here, produced a commanding performance to beat fellow former world number one Carlos Moya 6-2 6-4 and reach his fourth semi-final of the season. World number 19 Moya had defeated fourth seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia earlier this week.