Roger Federer's uncharacteristic struggles continued when he had to fight surprisingly hard to reach the semi-finals of the Masters Series with a three-set win over David Ferrer of Spain.
The world No. 1 had never previously dropped a set in six matches against the 12th-seeded Spaniard, but this time he slipped to within an inch of being a break point down in the seventh game of the final set, before surviving 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.
This struggle followed an even tighter three-set battle in Federer's match on Wednesday against Juan Monaco, an Argentine ranked outside the top 50, and his shock loss to Fillippo Volandri, in Rome last week.
That setback made it the first time Federer has failed to win a title in four successive tournaments since he became world number one 171 weeks ago.
For a set and a half Federer timed the ball better against Ferrer than at any time since reaching last month's Monte Carlo final, and he looked well on top until he reached a lead of one set, and 4-2, 30-15 in the second set.
At that stage Federer made one mistake with a forehand before attempting two ambitious strokes -- straightening a diagonal by striking a forehand drive down the line, and launching a spectacular forehand drive volley -- and both went wide.
Federer was employing arguably a far-sighted policy -- to try to dominate more, especially if he has to face Rafael Nadal again on the Parisian clay.
Nevertheless these three mistakes cost not only his service game, they allowed Ferrer back into the match.
Suddenly the hard-running Spaniard began to play more confidently, adding new dimensions to a game which was often based around making forehand drives from almost every position on the court.
It was at three-all, 30-all in the final set on his own serve that Federer had an important piece of luck. Ferrer's short sliced ball stayed low, and Federer only managed to get it over via the net cord, which made the ball drop dead.
Ferrer hopped and tossed his racket in frustration, and he never got as close to troubling Federer again, despite fighting to save four break points in the next game.
Federer's opponent in the semi-final will be the unseeded Carlos Moya, though the former world number one from Spain showed why he is still a dangerous opponent with a 7-6 (7/4), 4-6, 7-5 win over Novak Djokovic, the third seeded Serbian.
However Federer should have good memories of facing Moya. He was the first top ten player he ever beat -- at the age of 17.
The hoped-for showdown in today's final between Federer and Rafael Nadal later came closer when the French Open champion also reached the semi-final.
Nadal, wonderfully quick and always scoring heavily with angles and changes of pace from his forehand topspin drive, overcame Fernando Gonzalez, the Australian Open finalist from Chile, 6-4, 6-4.
Nadal was due to face Australia's Lleyton Hewitt in his last four match after he beat Spain's Nicolas Almagro 6-3, 6-4 in the final quarter-final.
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