Roger played a terrific match today to defeat Evgeny Korolev 6-3, 6-2 in just 55 minutes.

The Russian qualifier demonstrated why he made it through to the quarter finals in Basel and also had several break-balls, but Roger simply played too well. Our champ broke his opponent to 4-2 in the first and 3-2 as well as 5-2 in the second set.

The crowd in Basel is in for a special showdown on Saturday: Roger will play against another player from Basel, his long-time friend and junior training colleague Marco Chiudinelli. Chiudinelli clearly beat France's Richard Gasquet 6-1, 6-3 and will be playing the first semi-final at an ATP tournament of his career.