Indian Wells: Federer books semifinal clash with Dolgopolov

Roger Federer kept his bid for a fifth Indian Wells ATP Masters title on track Thursday with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Kevin Anderson. The 32-year-old Swiss needed just 69 minutes to book his berth in the final four.

Roger Federer kept his bid for a fifth Indian Wells ATP Masters title on track Thursday with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Kevin Anderson.

The 32-year-old Swiss needed just 69 minutes to book his berth in the final four, where he'll face Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov.

Federer saved the only break point he faced in the match early in the opening set and clearly had the answer to the tall South African's booming serve.

"You know, I gave myself chances and started with a few more returns in play at five-all," Federer said. "I was feeling good moving around, feeling good absorbing his pace. I think the combination there in those 10 minutes, they all worked out for me. So it was big to win the set and then to go on to break early in the second."

It was a textbook performance from the former world number one, whose ranking has slipped to eighth in the world but is projected to rise to five next week by reaching the final four.

Sania enters final
Sania Mirza and Cara Black are in line to win their first title of season after they defeated Lucie Hradecka and Jie Zheng to reach the final of the BNP Paribas Open.

The fifth seeded Indo-Zimbabwean pair defeated eighth seeded Czech-Chinese team 6-4 3-6 10-7 in an hour and 37 minutes in the semi-final of the USD 5,946,740 hard court event.

It will be first final of the 2014 season for Sania and Cara, who had won two back-to-back titles to end the previous season.

Before this event, in four tournaments this season, they twice suffered a first round exit and reached quarterfinals of the other two, including Australian Open.