Shaky Federer Wins While Nadal, Nalbandian and Monfils Cruise in Rome

Top seeds Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal moved a step closer to another monumental clash in the final of a Masters Series event Friday at the Masters Series-Rome. On Friday the top-seeded Federer needed three tough sets to get by pesky Spanish qualifier Nicolas Almagro 6-3, 6-7, 7-5, while Nadal continued his tour of punishment, laying the wood to Fernando Gonzalez 6-4, 6-3.

Federer, who has never won in Rome, nearly lost his chance to win the title Friday when he double faulted on match point serving at 5-4 in the second set. Almagro recovered, won the tiebreak then pushed Federer to the brink in the third set before the Swiss managed to escape.

"I thought it was pretty consistent except the one match point, obviously," Federer said of his creaky but safe play. "That made life a little bit more difficult for me today. But other than that, I thought I created quite a lot of opportunities for myself and nothing in the game really broke down, and that's important. It was a tricky match. He was playing well, very far behind the baseline, and that's always an adjustment to make especially after playing (Radek) Stepanek."

Federer, who has advanced to the finals in the last five ATP Masters Series events, winning four of them, will next take on familiar foe David Nalbandian who has defeated the Swiss six out of 10 times, including in a five-set thriller in the final of the Masters Cup last year.

Nalbandian has quietly matched through the field and has now won his last nine matches following an easy 6-3, 6-3 win over Mario Ancic.

In the second semifinals Nadal will play upstart Frenchman Gael "Force" Monfils who made it look easy against No. 5 seed Andy Roddick with a 6-2, 6-3 win over the American.

"No, (it was a) good tournament. Unfortunate ending in circumstances, and you never like to feel less than 100 percent," said Roddick who needed treatment in the first set for some back/shoulder pain. "To get to the quarters here in my first European claycourt tournament at a Masters Series event...uh it's fine. In hitting the ball, I felt OK. I broke a couple of times, I broke him each set, and had some chances to break at other times, so I've got to feel if I start serving well, that's a good sign. I broke a lot more at this tournament than I normally do, so that's very good."

The win puts Monfils into his first Masters Series semifinal, but he will have a tall order in defeating Nadal, who enters the match riding a 51-match win streak on clay.

Nadal's win over Gonzalez avenged two prior losses to the Chilean, who had no answers for the 19-year-old world No. 2.

Monfils will likely be in the same boat, as the gangly right-hander who is also 19 years old possesses little that should trouble Nadal. Nadal and Monfils have faced each other once. In their lone meeting, in Monte-Carlo last year, the Spaniard won in straight sets.

In doubles action, the top-seeded Bryans got bounced by baseline bashers Gonzalez and Nicolas Massu 3-6, 6-2, 10-4 (TB). They will now play Erlich/Ram in one semifinal while Bjorkman/Mirnyi tackle Knowles/Nestor in the other.