Federer beats Blake to reach U.S. Open semi-finals

NEW YORK, Sep 8 (Reuters) Twice defending champion Roger Federer faced two pressure-packed tiebreaks before prevailing over American James Blake in the US Open quarter-finals.

Federer won the first-set tiebreak 9-7 and lost the third set 11-9 in another tiebreaker before taking a 7-6 6-0 6-7 6-4 win yesterday that put the Swiss number one into his 10th successive grand slam semi-final - matching Ivan Lendl's Open era record streak.

He will meet seventh seed Nikolay Davydenko of Russia tomorrow for a place in the final. Davydenko advanced with a five-set victory over Germany's Tommy Haas earlier on Thursday.

Australian Open and Wimbledon winner Federer has won all seven previous matches against Davydenko.

The other semi-final pits American ninth seed Andy Roddick, the 2003 champion, against unseeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny.

Reuters PM GC0947