Roger Federer Lights up the Arabian Night 罗杰•费德勒点亮阿拉伯之夜Plenty of people

Roger Federer Lights up the Arabian Night

罗杰•费德勒点亮阿拉伯之夜

Plenty of people will be glad Tim Henman was not here to trouble Roger Federer once more last night，as the seedings said he should have been.Popular with the expatriates though he may be，and capable of upsetting Federer though he undoubtedly is，there is nothing quite so stirring as seeing one of the most gifted world No l s of all in full cry.

Instead of struggling with his jinx player，Federer imposed a spell of his own.He beat Andrei Pavel，whom Henman beat in the Paris Masters final，by6-3，6-3，and strode the court like a ruler who knows his aura is expanding.

It carried the Swiss imperiously into a semi-finals of the Dubai Championships，where he will face Jarkko Nieminen.The Finn earned his place by defeating the Dutch No 8 seed Sjeng Schalken 6-3,6-3.

Federer insisted he was not at his best-"I haven't wanted to chase the fines as much as I should，"he said.

Pavel was driven to distraction as it was.He had akeady lifted himself near the level he showed when he was in the top 20.But just when he looked as if he might prolong the second set， Federer struck.

He retrieved one ball from deep，outside the tramlines on the forehand side，turned and reached the next ball from short and outside the tramlines on the backhand side，and still somehow hit a controlled winner.It completed the decisive break of serve.

Pavel responded by launching a spare ball towards the sky and it landed on the whiskey tables in the lrish village below.The umpire uttered a code violation warning in little more than a whisper.It was as though he felt sympathy for the Romanian.

If Federer reaches tomorrow's final he will play Spain's Feliciano Lopez，whose Davis Cup debut came in the singles in the 2003 final in Melbourne，or Mikhail Youzhny，whose first Davis Cup experience was as a ball boy in the 1995 final in Moscow.

That spurred Youzhny to make a top-level breakthrough seven yearslater，and to develop perseverance which has been revealed this week in a 6-3，1-6，6-1 quarter-final win over Rafael Nadal yesterday in heat which would have made a camel protest，and in a recovery from two days'vomiting after eating Japanese seafood."My cap felt as if it weighed five kilos."he said.

From the opening paragraph，it can be inferred that______.

A．Tim Henman and Roger Federer were not in good terms

B．Roger Federer was hardly any match to Tim Henman

C．Tim Henman avoided meeting Roger Federer in the match

D．gifted world No ls are usually reduced to a state of tears when having lost a game