Ljubicic farewell

When anyone faces the world number one, they know they have to be at the pinnacle of their game just to remain competitive. Ljubicic managed to find his best form at times, but as is often the case, the best just was not enough against such an opponent.

Federer - who said recently that this has been his best-ever season, having won three grand slams and four Masters tournaments - has only been beaten twice this year. Ljubicic had to become the third to make the semis.

He began brilliantly, breaking Federer with a combination of winners, volleys and an error from his opponent.

Ljubicic then held twice to go 3-1 up, his huge serves, so hard for anyone to deal with indoors, causing problems for Federer. If he did not serve an ace, then he was able to gain enough advantage in the ensuing rally to finish the points.

Throughout the first set, rallies were indeed hard to come by. Federer too used his serve well after that first abomination, and managed the breakthrough for his comeback while the score stood at 3-2.

He somehow found a way to eke out the rallies in the game to win the first three points, and then as Ljubicic arrived at the net, produced one of his famed passes, although with his forehand.

The set resumed its serve-dominated nature thereafter and went to tie-break, as had the three played out the last time the pair met, in Miami.

Needless to say, Federer had taken all three of those contests and did so again to demoralise Ljubicic. He simply would not give up on a rally, enthralling the crowd as he chased everything between playing his own winners. He won four set points and the final score was 7-2.

Ljubicic was then broken in the third game of the second set. He did, however, have a golden opportunity to bring things back level immediately after.

Federer's serve deserted him and gave the Croatian a triple break point. One by one they fell to the backhand strokes of a man often described as the best tennis player ever.

Two big serves, an ace then a futile return from Ljubicic saved the game for the Swiss, who customarily looked unflustered throughout.

There were many more cultured and elegant strokes from both players, but neither could muster another break point, and Ljubicic, who sweated till the end, was out. Federer triumphed 7-6 6-4.

He may face Rafael Nadal or David Nalbandian in the semis, depending on the outcome of Friday's matches in the other group.

"It was very confusing in the beginning," Federer said. "It definitely took me a few games to kind of really get the sense that I want to win this match and I wanted to keep this great streak I have going and everything.

"So there was plenty of reasons. I'm happy I came through, especially convincingly. Gives me confidence for the semis."

Ljubicic, who went out on set count, said it was "weird" that he was going home despite having beaten Nalbandian in their group encounter but had no complaints about his defeat to Federer.

"He's always asking me a lot," said the world number four.

"I'm always pushed to the limits. I have always a lot of pressure on my serve. On my shots I always have to go for little bit more, and it's really hard to play like that the whole match."