Roger Federer celebrated his 33rd birthday by battling past David Ferrer 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to make the semi-finals of the ATP 1000 event The Rogers Cup.
Federer cruised through the first set, breaking Ferrer 3 times, the crucial one coming at 5-3 to take the first set.
Ferrer fought back in the second set and won ten of eleven points to break Federer at 4-4 before holding his serve to take the set 6-4.
With Federer’s errors mounting – he hit 21 of them to 11 winners in the second set- and Ferrer looking confident with a first serve percentage of 68, an upset looked like it might be on the cards, and on Federer’s 33rd birthday, too.
But the Swiss pulled his game back together, and broke Ferrer when leading 3-2 in the third set as his net game and backhand came to his aid, a backhand down the line winner earning him the break-point, and a backhand slice with so much backspin throwing Ferrer off guard and forcing him into error.
Federer did not wait around to celebrate his birthday and eat some cake, serving out for the match to book his place in the semis where he will play Feliciano Lopez who upset Milos Raonic in three sets.
Jo-Wilfriend Tsonga also caused an upset when he knocked out Andy Murray in a topsy turvy contest. Tsonga served at his best to take the first set on a tiebreaker and then had break points on the Murray serve in the second before the Scot upped his level, saved them and then broke Tsonga to take the second set 6-4. A dispirited Tsonga dug deep though, hung with a resurgent Murray and then played some inspired tennis to take the third set 7-5.
His reward will be a meeting with Grigor Dimitrov who edged Kevin Anderson 5-7, 7-6, 7-6.
Commentary by Christian Deverille
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