Federer through

The world number one had to survive two tight tie-breaks in the first and third sets before he was allowed to prevail over New York native Blake.

He said: "I thought that first set was unbelievable. From both sides. You make mistakes and he plays well and momentum shifts and all of a sudden you have a tough match."

Federer won the first tie-break 9-7 after saving three set points that Blake had set up. In the third set tie-break both men again had their chances but it was the American that this time capitalised 11-9 having already recovered from 2-5 down in the set to force the tie-break.

But as was the case in the second set, Blake's game collapsed and quickly found himself trailing in the fourth set, although admittedly this time he had managed to get a couple of games on the board.

The Swiss ace – usually so reliable at closing out matches – found himself serving for the match for a second time but again failed to take advantage as Blake's stubbornness appeared to offer him a way back into the match.

Blake said: "It was an old fashioned whuppin' in the second set. To a certain extent I take pride in the way that I fought."

The deficit was just too much for Blake to recover from in the end as Federer finally closed out the match on his third attempt, and will now meet Russian Davydenko who he has never beaten the Swiss in their seven meetings.