The world's top two will meet in the Cincinnati Masters semifinals after Roger Federer and Andy Murray won contrasting matches Friday. Top seed Federer cruised past former world number one Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 6-4, while holder Murray had to battle back to beat Frenchman Julien Benneteau 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. Federer and second-ranked Murray have met eight times before, the Scot registering six wins. “He (Murray) has been more or less the best player in the world on hard courts this year,” the Swiss said in a courtside interview. Federer was never troubled by Hewitt, breaking once in each set. Briton Murray, chasing back-to-back Masters Series titles after his win in Montreal last weekend, recovered from a set and 2-0 down to take his winning streak to eight matches. Frenchman Benneteau, a lucky loser entrant after the withdrawal of Juan Martin del Potro, took advantage of a below-par performance from his opponent in the first set. When the Scot dropped his serve in the second game of the second set, he looked in danger of defeat to world No. 55 Benneteau. However an epic 53-shot rally won by Murray changed the match completely and after breaking back, he dropped just two more games. “I played a really poor first set,” said the world No. two. “I served really badly. “That point made a big difference. I think he was very tired after that rally as well. I managed to stay strong after that. “When you can come through matches like that, it's a lot better. Everyone can win when they play good tennis.” Earlier Friday, Murray was confirmed as having secured his place in the eight-man field for the end-of-season World Tour Finals in London. Later Friday, former world No. 1 Rafa Nadal was to play Czech Tomas Berdych while fourth seed Novak Djokovic was to take on Frenchman Gilles Simon. On Thursday in just his second event after two months out with knee injuries, Rafael Nadal recovered from a slow start to beat Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 7-5, 6-2. Nadal's rival Czech Tomas Berdych was a 6-4, 6-3 winner over Australian qualifier Chris Guccione.
