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Roger Federer swept through into the semifinals at his home tournament in Basel as he eased past Russian Evgeny Korolev 6-3, 6-2 in under an hour. Facing him there, in a semifinal that will warm Swiss hearts is countryman Marco Chiudinelli. 2nd seed Novak Djokovic kept alive his hopes of a dream final against Roger, and will take on the radical Czech Radek Stepanek in the other semifinal. The Serb knocked out any possibility of an all Swiss final as he recorded a tough victory over Stanislas Wawrinka 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2.

Hometown favourite, Roger Federer notched up his eighteenth straight victory at Basel in a 55 minute stroll. The three time defending champion broke Korolev thrice while keeping his own service slate clean to take a 2-0 H2H lead against his opponent. Federer has so far progressed without dropping a single set and this trend is likely to continue in his semifinal against 73rd ranked fellow Swiss Chiudinelli. Chiudinelli did an excellent job of ousting beleaguered Frenchman Richard Gasquet in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3 to make his first ever ATP semifinal.

In the other half of the draw, Serb Novak Djokovic knocked out Stanislas Wawrinka in a tight 3 setter to make it six in a row against the Swiss no.2. Novak did well to fight back from a set and break down to level the match by winning a tight second set tie-break and then raced away with a double break in the final set to bring the match after 2hrs and 18min to an end. Novak will be looking for a rematch of his US Open semifinal against Federer and standing in his way is the unorthodox Radek Stepanek.

Stepanek also came back from a set down to ease past rangy Marin Cilic 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. Cilic, whose profile has risen considerably since he pummeled Andy Murray into submission in the US Open, started off well but couldn't keep the momentum going as Radek slowly took control winning the final two sets breaking Cilic's big serve thrice in the process. Stepanek last played Djokovic at New York and will look to avoid a repeat of the drubbing he received there.

Quarterfinal Scores:

[1] R Federer (SUI) d [Q] E Korolev (RUS) 63 62
[2] N Djokovic (SRB) d [6] S Wawrinka (SUI) 36 76(5) 62
[5] R Stepanek (CZE) d [4] [WC] M Cilic (CRO) 46 63 63
[WC] M Chiudinelli (SUI) d R Gasquet (FRA) 61 63