Roger Federer has booked a semi-final clash with world number one Novak Djokovic at the US Open after beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarter-finals.
Federer beat Frenchman Tsonga 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 at Flushing Meadows, after Djokovic had earlier beaten fellow Serbian Janko Tipsarevic 7-6 (7/2), 6-7 (3/7), 6-0, 3-0 (retired).
Five-time champion Federer had lost his last two matches against Tsonga, including a five-set quarter-final at Wimbledon earlier this year.
But the third-seeded Federer never looked likely to fall to a third successive loss to Tsonga, and the Swiss keeps alive his last remaining chance to win a Grand Slam in 2011.
"I played great," Federer said in an on-court interview. "For me it continues, and that is awesome. I'm very happy with the way I'm playing, the way I'm moving and I'm enjoying myself on the court."
In the remaining quarter-finals at a rain-interrupted US Open, Andy Murray will play John Isner, while defending champion and world number two Rafael Nadal will face 2003 US Open champion Andy Roddick.
In the women's event, top seed Caroline Wozniacki beat Andrea Petkovic 6-1, 7-6 to book a semi-final clash with Serena Williams, who beat 17th-seeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5 6-1.
The other semi-final will see Samantha Stosur - a 6-3 6-3 conqueror of Vera Zvonareva - face unseeded German Angelique Kerber, who beat Italian Flavia Pennetta 6-4 4-6 6-3.
