By Chris Oddo | Friday, June 19, 2015

 

Roger Federer moved past Florian Mayer in straight sets on Friday in Halle to take his place in the semis.

Photo Source: Thomas Stark/Bongarts

Roger Federer reached his 11th career semifinal at Halle with a 6-0, 7-6(1) victory over Florian Mayer on Friday, marking his 134th career grass-court victory against just 19 losses.

More: Karlovic Sets ATP Ace Record in Halle

The Swiss improves to 6-0 against Mayer lifetime, 33-6 on the year and 49-5 lifetime at Halle with the win.

He needed just 18 minutes to take the first set, striking 14 winners against only three unforced errors. But Mayer came to life in the second set, saving both break points he faced and pushing Federer to a tiebreaker before the top seed took over, racing out to a 4-0 lead and setting up his first match point with back-to-back aces to give himself a 6-1 lead.

On the next point, Federer cracked a down-the-line service winner to wrap up affairs in a tidy 64 minutes.

Federer will square off against Ivo Karlovic in Saturday's semifinals.

Second-seeded Kei Nishikori took a more scenic route to his second consecutive Halle semifinal, but he was able to get by a spirited effort from Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.

Janowicz was able to break the Nishikori serve twice on four opportunities in the second set to force Japan’s top player to a third set, but Nishikori responded in the decider, breaking the Janowicz serve twice in a row to lead 3-1, then holding serve the rest of the way.

Nishikori will face Italian Andreas Seppi in the semis. Seppi moved through when Gael Monfils was forced to retired in the day's last quarterfinal.