Nalbandian cruises into Semis at Shanghai
Bureau Report

SHANGHAI (China)—David Nalbandian joined top-ranked Roger Federer in the Tennis Masters Cup semifinals, with each using a different approach to his last round-robin match Thursday. Nalbandian breezed to a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Ivan Ljubicic in 67 minutes, serving out at love in the last game.
Federer, already assured of a spot in the semis after two earlier victories, extended his winning streak to 34 matches with a stop-start 6-0, 1-6, 6-2 defeat of fourth-seeded Guillermo Coria. After mixing flashes of brilliance with 33 unforced errors, Federer improved to 80-3 this year, two wins shy of John McEnroe’s Open era record (82-3) for best winning percentage in a season.
The 24-year-old Swiss star finished atop the Red Group and faces either Gaston Gaudio or Fernando Gonzalez in Saturday’s semifinal. Federer can equal McEnroe’s 21-year-old mark with a third consecutive unbeaten run to victory here.
Next for Nalbandian is seventh-ranked Nikolay Davydenko, who will finish atop an injury-depleted Gold Group. He has one round-robin match remaining against Mariano Puerta on Friday. Federer raced through the first set, breaking Coria’s serve three times.
Coria produced some stunning winners from almost nothing to lift the tempo for some points, swiping a forehand crosscourt winner on a service return and leaping for an overhead on his backhand for another. But Federer dominated the first six games. Coria, who had a medical timeout for attention on both ankles at 5-0 down in the first set, rallied in the second by breaking Federer’s serve twice.
Federer made the decisive break in the sixth game of the third set and finished when Coria had a double-fault — his ninth — on match point. Nalbandian didn’t ease up at any stage against Ljubicic, who sprayed a backhand wide on match point, one of 22 unforced errors.
“If I would play all the time like this, my ranking would be much higher,” said Nalbandian, seeded eighth here. “I need a lot of motivation sometimes — today was one of my best indoor matches”. Ljubicic looked flat after taking Federer to a third-set tiebreaker before losing two days earlier.