Agassi no match for sublime Federer

World No1 wins 6-3, 6-4, 6-4

Top seed Roger Federer produced some outstanding tennis to comfortably dispose of Andre Agassi in straight sets and set up a mouth-watering semi-final with Marat Safin.

Despite playing some superb shots in front of a capacity crowd cheering him on, 34-year-old Agassi was unable to get to grips with Federer's stylish and imposing play, one break of serve enough for the world No1 to take the opening set.

After losing his serve again in the first game of the second set, Agassi managed to forge a break point of his own in the fourth game but Federer held on, the Swiss star racking up 19 aces as he took the set 6-4.

And when the world No1 broke again in the opening game of the third set, the writing was on the wall for Agassi, who, like the rest of the men's tour, had no answer to Federer's incredible all-round game.

After recording his 26th successive win, Federer said: "A good start always helps, especially against Andre and I think I really served well, he never broke me.

"From the baseline it was clear who was the better man so I had to serve better."

Marat Safin earlier cruised into the semi-finals with a straight sets victory over Dominik Hrbaty.

Soaring temperatures in Melbourne meant the roof on the Rod Laver Arena was closed for Safin's match with Hrbaty, although the women's quarter-finalists had not been so lucky earlier in the day.

And Safin clearly enjoyed the perfect indoor climate as he disposed of Hrbaty 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 in just 90 minutes.

"It helped me a lot to play indoors," admitted Safin, the fourth seed and last year's beaten finalist.

"Dominik wanted to play outdoors but at the last minute the tournament director said they were closing the roof.

"I played the best tennis I could today. I knew we were going to meet in the quarter-finals so I practised with Dominik three times last week!"

Safin and Hrbaty had each won six of their previous 12 meetings, Hrbaty coming out on top in both grand slam clashes, including in the fourth round here in 2001.

But the Slovakian world No27 was never in contention on this occasion, losing his serve twice in each set and making 29 unforced errors.

Safin never had to get out of second gear but still served 14 aces, the fastest clocked at 137mph.