The Thai has never faced Federer in the opening round of any tournament. But they have met across the net twice with the Swiss star leading 2-0 in their head-to-head record.

The two first played in the semi-final of the Thailand Open two years ago when the Thai put up a great fight before losing 7-5 2-6 6-3.

They met on court again in March this year in the Indian Wells Masters Series which was also a semi-final. This time the world's top player tamed the Thai in straight sets 6-2

6-3.

The Cincinnati tournament starts on Monday with Federer, Raphael Nadal, David Nalbandian and Ivan Ljubicic as the top four seeds.

Meanwhile in Bangkok, top seed Chen Ti of Taiwan beat American Jonathan Chu 6-1 7-6 (8-6) to reach the final of the US$10,000 PTT Bangkok Open ITF Men's Futures 5 tournament at the Rama Gardens yesterday.

The Taiwanese will play the final today against South Korean Chung Hee-seok, who upset second-seed Nick Lindahl of Australia 3-6 6-2

6-4.

Chinese duo Yu Xin-yuan and Zeng Shao-xuan lifted the doubles trophy after beating An Jae-sung and Chung of South Korea 6-2 5-7 6-4.

Federer, Murray advances

nWorld No 1 Roger Federer and British teen Andy Murray outlasted rivals over three sets on Friday to reach the semi-finals of the US$2.5 million ATP Masters Series tournament in Toronto.

Swiss star Federer dispatched Belgian Xavier Malisse 7-6 (7/4) 6-7 (5/7) 6-3, winning his 16th match in a row to book a date with Chile's Fernando Gonzalez, who ousted Argentina's Jose Acasuso 6-1 7-5.

"When it was 5-5 in the first set before I had my first break point, I said to myself, 'OK, it's going to be a tough night'," Federer said. "But I won the deciding game and after that there was never any doubt."

Federer, who has won 52 North American hard court matches in a row, needed two hours, 27 minutes to reach his match-up with Gonz-alez, who improved to 29-15 this year with an 80-minute triumph.

Murray continued to struggle with closing out opponents in beating Finland's Jarkko Nieminen 6-4 6-7 (0/7) 6-3. He will try to reach the final by beating France's Richard Gasquet, who ousted Czech Tomas Berdych 6-4 6-1.

The 19-year-old Scotsman, in his second event since joining with new coach Brad Gilbert, needed two hours and 27 minutes to advance.

Gilbert has guided Andy Roddick and Andre Agassi to Grand Slam triumphs and the world No 1 ranking, adding to the pressure upon Murray, who reached last week's Washington final but who has faltered several times in second sets.

Closing out foes easier is among the items Gilbert intends to work on with Murray, although most of

that will come after the US Open as neither want to make changes before the year's final Grand Slam event.