Roger Federer has beaten Florian Mayer for an eighth time without a loss to knock the defending champion out of Germany's Halle Open in the quarter-finals 6-3 6-4.
The Swiss top seed, bidding for an historic ninth title at the grass venue whose stadium and ground are styled after Wimbledon, needed four match points over two games to advance to the final four yesterday (New Zealand time), securing victory through a forehand winner after 66 minutes.
Federer continued his career-long dominance over 134th-ranked Mayer, winning 17 of their 18 sets.
The 35-year-old, with three major titles in his pocket from the first quarter of the year, was playing his 15th quarter-final at one of his favourite venues where his overall record stands at 57-6.
"I was very calm out there, even in difficult moments. I was calm serving out the first and second sets. Those are always signs for me that things are slowly starting to fall into place nicely," Federer said.
