Local hero Roger Federer won his 32nd match from his last 33 played at the Swiss Indoors on Friday, breezing into the semi-finals with an emphatic 6-2 6-2 win over Benoit Paire.
The full force of the world No.1 and five-time tournament winner who was on display in his 54-minute quarter-final rout of the 23-year-old French challenger, a victory studded with seven aces and four breaks of serve.
Federer will play another French opponent on Saturday when he takes on fellow veteran Paul-Henri Mathieu, who reached his second semi-final since coming back in late January after a year away with a knee injury.
Mathieu claimed his final-four spot with a 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-4) win over Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.
Second seed Juan Martin del Potro struggled into the semi-finals by beating South African Kevin Anderson 3-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-2, a day after qualifying for the year-ending ATP World Tour Finals.
The Argentine will take a 4-1 lead into his match with French third seed Richard Gasquet, who kept alive his bid to secure one of the two remaining places in the eight-man event in London with a 6-2 7-6 (7-5) defeat of sixth seed Mikhail Youzhny.
Federer suffered his only recent defeat in Basel in 2009 when he lost the final to Novak Djokovic.
But he was taking no chances in front of his sold-out public, sweeping the opening set against Paire in 29 minutes with two breaks.
The second set was equally brief as Federer moved within two wins of his seventh trophy of the season.
“It was a good match for me and I’m pleased to be back in the semi-finals,” Federer said.
“It cannot have been easy for him playing a top 10 player. I had to play aggressive, but by the fourth game of the match, I knew what I had to do.”
Del Potro, playing only his second event since coming back from a month off to heal a left wrist problem, was pleased to get past Anderson, who fired 20 aces in defeat.
Gasquet is seeking one of two remaining spots in the London field, trailing three rivals as he stands adrift of compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Serb Janko Tipsarevic and Spain’s Nicolas Almagro.
Of the three, Tsonga and Tipsarevic quit first-round matches due to injuries in Valencia while Almagro reached the quarter-finals but lost to David Ferrer on Friday.
