HAMBURG (Germany), May 17: Holder and top seed Roger Federer scored a comfortable 6-3, 6-3 win over unseeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco at the Hamburg Masters on Friday to ease into the semi-finals.

The Swiss world number one, still without a major title to his name this year, was joined in the last four by closest rivals Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

The second and third seeds will play each other for a place in Sunday’s final and the in-form Serb will take over Nadal’s number two world ranking if he wins. Federer will meet Italy’s Andreas Seppi.

Djokovic brushed aside Verdasco’s compatriot Albert Montanes 6-2, 6-3 and Nadal thumped fellow Mallorcan Carlos Moya 6-1, 6-3, while Seppi crushed the hopes of the home crowd by beating Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 in a three-hour thriller.

Federer took just under half an hour to wrap up the first set against Verdasco in the day’s first quarter-final at the Rothenbaum but had to beat back a determined challenge at the start of the second, saving several break points.

After holding his serve for a 3-2 lead, the 24-year-old Spaniard called for the doctor and had his right ankle heavily bandaged. The clinical Swiss then took full advantage of his opponent’s misfortune, breaking serve twice and cruising to victory in 81 minutes.

“He’s a very talented player and he’s got the game to upset anyone on any surface,” the 12-time Grand Slam winner said at a news conference.

“In the end it was unfortunate for him that his foot hurt a little bit but I don’t think that had much to do with it at the very end.”

Four times a winner in Hamburg, including against Nadal in the final last year, Federer has played the 24-year-old Seppi just once, coming through a tight match at the Monte Carlo Masters last year in straight sets.

Djokovic has won the Australian Open and two Masters Series titles already this year and was far too good for Montanes, wrapping up the match in just 76 minutes.

Nadal has won all three of their previous matches on clay, beating the Serb in straight sets in the 2007 French Open semi-finals.

Nadal, the French Open champion the past three years, has spent a record 147 weeks ranked second behind Federer dating back to July 2005.

Results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Quarter-finals: 2-Rafael Nadal (Spain) bt 11-Carlos Moya (Spain) 6-1, 6-3; Andreas Seppi (Italy) bt Nicolas Kiefer (Germany) 6-3, 5-7, 7-5; 3-Novak Djokovic (Serbia) bt Albert Montanes (Spain) 6-2, 6-3; 1-Roger Federer (Switzerland) bt Fernando Verdasco (Spain) 6-3, 6-3.

WILLIAMS SISTERS OUT

ROME: American Venus Williams lost 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 to Serb title holder Jelena Jankovic in the Italian Open quarter-finals on Friday while her sister Serena pulled out at the same stage of the tournament with a back injury.

Jankovic’s semi-final opponent will be Russia’s number two seed Maria Sharapova who beat Swiss Patty Schnyder 6-7, 7-5, 6-2.

Fifth seed Serena said her withdrawal from her match with 18-year-old French qualifier Alize Cornet should not affect her preparations for the French Open, which starts on May 25.

Cornet knocked out last year’s finalist Svetlana Kuznetsova on Thursday and her walkover sets up a semi-final with another Russian, sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze, a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 winner over Bulgarian qualifier Tsvetana Pironkova on Friday.

Neither seventh seed Venus nor Jankovic were able to stamp their authority on the early phases of their quarter-final, but the American took two of the three first-set games that went with serve to get the upper hand.

The Serb fourth seed came back strongly in the second set, wrapping it up with a forehand down the line into the corner on Venus’s serve.

The American paid for too many unforced errors in the final set as Jankovic won five consecutive games on the way to clinching the match.

Ninth seed Schnyder betrayed no nerves against Sharapova, who will become world number one next week after Belgian Justine Henin retired from tennis on Wednesday.

Russia’s Australian Open champion had to show great fight to come back from 5-2 down and save three set points in the 10th game but lost the first set in a tiebreak.

Schnyder had Sharapova on the back foot at the start of the second set too but the Russian responded again and evened things up with a break in its last game before clinching a thrilling match in the final set with the help of some thumping winners.

Cornet will be playing in her second Tier 1 semi-final when she meets Chakvetadze, having lost to eventual winner Serena at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston last month.

Chakvetadze had an easy time in the first set against the 64th-ranked Pironkova, who stunned Serbian top seed Ana Ivanovic by beating her in the second round on Wednesday.

The Russian lost her concentration in the second set after Pironkova took time out for treatment on an apparent shoulder problem but stormed back in the decider despite several times needing attention herself on the same area of the body.

Results (WO denotes walkover):

Quarter-finals: 2-Maria Sharapova (Russia) bt 9-Patty Schnyder (Switzerland) 6-7(3), 7-5, 6-2; 4-Jelena Jankovic (Serbia) bt 7-Venus Williams (US) 5-7, 6-2, 6-3; Alize Cornet (France) bt 5-Serena Williams (US)WO; 6-Anna Chakvetadze (Russia) bt Tsvetana Pironkova (Bulgaria) 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.—Agencies