Federer was sharp in his 6-4, 6-3 defeat of Marcos Baghdatis, never facing a break point. He broke the Cypriot to close out the first set, then again to go ahead 5-3 in the second.

The Swiss will be trying to win the Cincinnati title for the fourth time — he also was the champion in 2005, 2007 and 2009.

In the earlier semifinal, the seven-minute delay came with Fish only one game away from a straight-set defeat, and he returned far the better player after the interruption, winning 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-1 against his American compatriot, boyhood friend and high school teammate.

“It wasn’t long at all,” Fish said. “It was only a couple minutes that we were back there, so I just changed (outfits). It was only a couple of minutes.”

The start of the match was delayed 50 minutes by heavy rain. Another cloudburst during the first set resulted in a 1-hour delay that knocked Fish off his game. Roddick was up 5-4 coming out of the delay. Fish developed trouble with his forehand, dumping three into the net while Roddick won the game and the set.

Fish trailed 5-2 in the second set when another shower forced that brief break that had the opposite effect.

“The first one really helped, the second one obviously didn’t,” Roddick said. “That’s the thing with rain delays. The momentum can shift really fast.”

Fish broke Roddick’s serve for the first time in the match to keep it going, then won the tiebreaker when Roddick began missing routine shots. Roddick fell behind 3-0 in the third set, becoming so upset with himself that he swatted a ball away and bounced his racket off the ground.

Roddick faded at the end, showing little emotion while Fish finished him off.

Fish has played some of his best tennis lately, winning back-to-back titles in Newport and Atlanta while putting together a 16-1 streak.

Despite the defeat, it had been a positive week for Roddick, who pulled out of the Rogers Cup in Toronto the previous week, unsure why he was feeling sluggish. A blood test found he’d been fighting off a mild case of mononucleosis the last couple months.

The top-ranked American felt revived in Cincinnati. He considered it a “complete positive” to reach the semifinals.

“To get in five really tough matches is more than I could’ve asked for going into the Open,” Roddick said. “When I came here I was thinking maybe two matches and we’ll see. I hadn’t really put too much time in.”

Roddick and Fish know what the other is about to do on the court, a bond that goes back to their boyhood. Fish lived with Roddick’s family in Boca Raton, Florida, in 1999. They went to the same high school, played on the tennis and basketball teams together, and practiced against one another nearly every day.

They remain close while competing against each other. Roddick has gotten the best of it — he has a 9-3 head-to-head record, though Fish has now won the past two.
 
Montreal Cup semis rained out

Meantime, the Montreal Cup was headed toward a rare Monday finish after persistent rain on Saturday allowed only 10 minutes of the semifinal between Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki and Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova to be played.

After six hours of delays, tournament officials finally threw in the soggy towel and rescheduled the semifinals for early on Sunday followed by the final at 1500 EST.

However, with the forecast predicting even heavier rain on Sunday, tournament director Eugene Lapierre admitted to the possibility of a Monday finish.

“Radar is not so good, it says 100 percent chance of rain but it doesn’t mean it is going to rain the whole day,” Lapierre said. “I’ve rarely seen days when we could play only two games, I would be very surprised to see that again.

“If we cancel tomorrow it will be the same program on Monday.”

If a Monday final is necessary it will be the first this year for a WTA event but the second time in five years that the Montreal Cup has spilled over into a second week because of rain. Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic beat Swiss Martin Hingis in a Monday final in 2006.

A steady drizzle delayed the start of play nearly four hours on Saturday and by the time Wozniacki and Kuznetsova finally appeared on center court it was to a mostly empty stadium.

The few determined fans that waited were rewarded with just 10 minutes of tennis, Wozniacki racing to a 2-0 lead before rain returned, sending the players scurrying for cover.

Following another two-hour delay, tournament officials in one last desperate bid to salvage the day decided to play both semifinals at the same time, with Vera Zvonareva and Victoria Azarenka moved to an outside court.

But just as the players completed their warm-up the rain again began to fall, Kuznetsova and Wozniacki entertained the fans with a game of net soccer before leaving center court.