Mixed feelings for Federer

Roger Federer felt some sympathy for young opponent Juan Martin Del Potro after thrashing him 6-3 6-0 6-0 to advance to an Australian Open semi-final with Andy Roddick.

Federer won the final 13 games against Del Potro in a match that lasted only 80 minutes on Rod Laver Arena.

The 20-year-old Argentinian eighth seed, playing in his second grand slam quarter-final after losing to Andy Murray at the US Open last year, started with some promise before being broken in the fourth game of the first set.

That seemed to shake his confidence and, although he held serve for two more games after that, he went on to lose the set 6-3 then went into meltdown.

“The last couple of games were not that much fun, let’s put it that way. You want to almost put him out of his misery because you know how tough it is for him to come back,” Federer said.

“He’s trying shots he shouldn’t be trying. He’s accepting defeat the last few games. It’s tough.”

Del Potro had no answers for why he could not reproduce the form that saw him overcome qualifier Florian Mayer, Gilles Muller and 19th seed Marin Cilic on his way to the quarter-finals.

“I just had a bad day. He’s Roger Federer. If you aren’t good, you lose. I played badly, but he did everything very well,” a despondent Del Potro said.

Federer’s smooth passage means he has reached a record 19th consecutive grand slam final.

“I’m very happy, of course,” said the world number two.

“Things went much better than I expected. I was really happy the way I came out and played. I kind of felt good from the start. The longer the match went, the more he struggled and the better I got.

“Juan Martin, he hits heavy off both sides. He’s up and coming and dangerous. I’ve always played well against him every time we’ve played.

“I thought it was going to be a tough match in the beginning... but I was very mistaken. I’m happy about that.”

Federer was in a class of his own and showed no ill effects from his five-setter against Tomas Berdych in the previous round.

He was on the front foot from the fourth game and barely put a foot wrong after that, hitting 12 aces and 38 winners as he mixed his elegant ground strokes with some sublime drop shots and passes that had Del Potro, the youngest quarter-finalist at the Australian Open since Richard Krajicek in 1992, completely overwhelmed.

Having won the first set with the minimum of fuss, the 13-time grand slam champion rattled off the next 12 games to wrap up the win.