Roger Federer has shaken off a strong challenge from Grigor Dimitrov to move into the Brisbane International’s final four.
Still battling a flu bug, the defending champion was occasionally off-colour against the improved Bulgarian but ultimately prevailed 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-4 on Pat Rafter Arena on Friday night.
The win sets up a semifinal clash with Austrian youngster Dominic Thiem while the man he beat in last year’s final, Milos Raonic, takes on Bernard Tomic in the other semifinal on Saturday.
“It was tough. Grigor’s a great shot-maker, the future’s ahead of him in the game,” Federer said.
The Swiss couldn’t have asked for a better start, dropping just two points on serve through the first set.
But for the first time in his career Dimitrov took a set off Federer, playing a near-perfect tiebreaker to force a third set and send a scare through the Swiss maestro’s camp just as a few uncharacteristic errors began creeping into his game.
However, Federer soon straightened himself out, broke Dimitrov’s serve and expertly snuffed out any chance of a late fightback from the Bulgarian.
“The third was close and thankfully I started to serve a little bit better,” the 17-time grand slam winner said.
“Maybe he didn’t have his best finish of the match today, but I enjoyed it anyways.”
Federer is set for another stern test in the shape of Thiem, who upset Croatian third seed Marin Cilic 2-6, 7-6(4), 6-4 to book his semifinal spot.
The 34-year-old has never played Thiem but invited him to train with him last year in Switzerland.
“I was very impressed with what I saw,” Federer said.
“He’s got one of the strongest one-handed backhands we have in the game.
“Today he had a really tough match against Cilic but these are the matches the young guys have got to win to take it to the next level, and that’s exactly what he’s doing.”