Tennis-Open-Sublime Federer motors into semi-final

PARIS, June 6 (Reuters) Roger Federer kept alive his dream of winning all four grand slam titles by reaching the French Open semi-finals with a 6-4 6-3 6-4 win over Croatian Mario Ancic today.

The Swiss had walked on to a sun-baked centre court on the back of a 25-match winning streak in major tournaments. Although he was tested at times by Ancic, he booked a place in the last four against either David Nalbandian or Nikolay Davydenko.

The big-serving Ancic let four break points slip in the opening set and allowed Federer to clinch it after flaying a forehand wide.

The world number one ran into a spot of bother in the second set when he trailed 2-0 and was 0-40 down in the third game.

After emerging from that unscathed, Federer won the last five games of the set in breathtaking fashion to leave Ancic completely deflated.

The 12th seed, who consulted a trainer midway through the third set, succumbed after two hours 17 minutes after misfiring a service return wide.

REFUTES SRS BST2146