Roger Federer Earns 50th Win To Reach Stockholm Semis

(October 22, 2010) Tennis is a numbers game and Roger Federer continues to deliver distinguished digits. In a clash of Olympic gold-medal winning doubles partners, Federer dug out of a one-set, 0-2 deficit to collect his 50th win of the season with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Stanislas Wawrinka that sent the top-seeded Swiss into the Stockholm Open semifinals.

Federer is the first man to win at least 50 matches for nine straight years since Pete Sampras accomplished the feat from 1990-98. Federer is the fifth man in the Open Era to win 50 or more matches for at least nine straight years, joining Sampras, Stefan Edberg, Guillermo Vilas and Jimmy Connors, who won 50 or more matches for 13 consecutive seasons.

The win came a day after Federer defeated Taylor Dent, 6-1, 6-2,  in his  900th Tour level match. Federer is the only active man in the 900 club.

The top-seeded Swiss will play Ivan Ljubicic for a place in Sunday's final. 

In an all-Croatian quarterfinal, the fourth-seeded Ljubicic rallied for a 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 win over qualifier Ivan Dodig. Federer is 12-3 lifetime vs. the 31-year-old Ljubicic, including nine consecutive wins. World No. 17 Ljubicic beat Andy Roddick to capture his 10th career title at Indian Wells in March. 

In a rematch of the 2006 Stockholm final, Finland's Jarkko Nieminen snapped a six-match losing streak against wild card James Blake with a 6-0, 6-2 blow-out that lasted just 50 minutes. 

The 45th-ranked Nieminen raised his record to 25-24. He will play 47th-ranked Florian Mayer, who topped fifth-ranked Robin Soderling, 7-6(8), 6-1.