Federer, Roddick, Hewitt Into ATP Cincinnati Semifinals

"I'm No. 1 in the world, so I don't want to give away wins just like that, as presents," Federer said. "I want to make sure when I'm playing, I'm on, and when I'm not feeling well, I don't play. Like in Montreal I didn't feel like I was ready yet. So I'm very happy to see that when I come here, I feel like I'm ready."

In the semifinals the Swiss will face unseeded American wildcard entrant Robby Ginepri, who routed a knee-addled and frustrated No. 4 seed Marat Safin 6-2, 6-3 in under an hour.

"I didn't practice for one month and a half and I played three matches in a row and today I felt really, really tired on the court," said the racquet-smashing Safin, his knee covered by an ice bag after the match. "I couldn't move properly and I couldn't find my game. My timing was not there. So it's really difficult to play against any player."

In the other semifinal Saturday No. 5 seed Andy Roddick, who came back from a set down against unseeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny, will face No. 3 seed Lleyton Hewitt who routed No. 6 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia 6-2, 6-3.

Youzhny was up a set and on serve in the second until he tried to take Roddick's head off with a passing shot, which brought the fired-up American out of his funk and saw the Russian wilt in the third.

Scheduled for the Saturday semis are (1) Federer vs. (WC) Ginepri (Fed won their only meeting at the 2001 US Open), (3) Hewitt vs. (5) Roddick (the Aussie has won six of their seven meetings), and in doubles Frenchmen (6) Llodra/Santoro vs. Zimbabwe's (4) Black/Ullyett, and (3) Knowles/Nestor vs. (2) Bjorkman/Mirnyi.

"He definitely plays well in the States," said Federer of Ginepri. "Probably if you look at his results he's had most of them here. He's beaten Marat, who I think is one of the best players in the world. Yeah, so I definitely have to watch out even though I think it's a good draw, you know, to play against him...He's definitely hot, and hope I can cool him down."