FanHouse Fernando Verdasco

LONDON (AP) -- Roger Federer overcame an erratic forehand and Fernando Verdasco on Sunday, rallying to beat his Spanish opponent 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 in the round-robin stage of the ATP World Tour Finals.

The top-ranked Federer was broken only once -- in the opening game of the Group A match after double-faulting on the first point -- but he never looked dominating until late in the second set when he converted his first break point to even the score at one set apiece.

In the third set at the O2 Arena, Federer was back to his old self. He controlled play as usual, and gave Verdasco little chance to stay in the match.

"I was down a set, and only the second set was I able to sort of get the ball into play, find my range, find my rhythm," Federer said. "This is also when I started to feel like I had chances.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Novak Djokovic has reached the U.S. Open semifinals for the third consecutive year.

The No. 4-seeded Djokovic of Serbia beat No. 10 Fernando Verdasco of Spain 7-6 (2), 1-6, 7-5, 6-2 on Wednesday.

A trainer treated Verdasco for a stomach muscle problem during the match.

Djokovic, the 2008 Australian Open champion, lost to Roger Federer in the 2007 final and the 2008 semifinals at Flushing Meadows.

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They had to gang up on Rafael Nadal. It was a tag-team effort in Madrid: First, Novak Djokovic softened him up with a four-hour death match. Nadal won. The next day, Roger Federer cleaned up on a tired Nadal with a sore knee.

But the point is, Nadal did fall on clay. It can be done! No one knew that for sure.

So we start the French Open on Sunday, the year's second major. Nadal has won it four years in a row. Can he be stopped now?

Andy Roddick should look at the bright side. He didn't lose to Roger Federer as badly as he usually does. Still, in the Australian Open semifinals on Thursday, Federer beat Roddick in straight sets, 6-2, 7-5, 7-5.

The two 7-5 sets are the hopeful part for Roddick. Maybe he can catch the Federbot one of these days. Roddick actually beat him the last time they played, almost a year ago in Miami. Prior to that, Roddick hadn't even won a set against Federer since late in 2006. That's how dominant Federer is. He is not the Tiger Woods of tennis. Tiger Woods is the Roger Federer of golf.

Tennis is a funny game. One minute you're up against match point, with your tournament hopes hanging by a thread, and then a few points later you're suddenly running away the momentum.

This was the case for two of the ladies in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open. After winning the first set, Svetlana Kuznetsova was serving for the match against Serena Williams, but Serena broke the Russian at 4-5 to even the second set, and basically stole all of Kuznetsova's mojo. Then, despite some hot Aussie weather, Serena stayed focused and sweated her way to a second-set win and an absolute clobbering in the third set to win the match, 5-7, 7-5, 6-1.

Andy Murray will have time to contemplate the pie floater this week. The No. 4-seeded Brit lost a five-set match to Spain's Fernando Verdasco (right) on Monday at the Australian Open, becoming the latest seeded player to get beat at a tournament that hasn't been kind to the "over-dogs."