Shanghai, November 16:

Defending champion Roger Federer extended his mastery of No 5 Andy Roddick, winning 6-4, 6-2 on Friday at the Masters Cup in a match played largely for pride.

Both players already had earned semi-final berths from the Red Group after No 4 Nikolay Davydenko beat No 7 Fernando Gonzalez 6-4, 6-3 earlier to eliminate the Chilean. All that was at stake was determining who they face next in the year-ending tournament for the top eight men in the rankings.

Top-ranked Federer, who improved his career record against Roddick to 15-1, will play No 2 Rafael Nadal on Saturday and Roddick meets No 6 David Ferrer, who went undefeated in Gold Group.

The match was nearly a repeat of the Australian Open semi-final when Federer blitzed Roddick, allowing the American only six games in three sets. Federer, who had looked in danger after losing his opening match against Gonzalez, was thoroughly dominant. He never faced a break point and blunted Roddick’s powerful first serve and picked on his second one. The Swiss star finished with 33 winners to only 13 unforced errors.

Clearly frustrated, Roddick smashed a ball into the stands after losing the first set, then broke his racket by bashing it against his left foot five times when Federer broke him for a 3-0 lead in the second set. Serving at 5-2, Federer held at love, whacking a clean forehand winner to finish it in 61 minutes.

Davydenko already had been eliminated from the semi-finals by dropping his first two matches. While inconsistent again, the Russian knocked out Gonzalez, who had hoped to emerge from the Red Group if he won and top-ranked Federer lost.

Davydenko essentially won a battle of attrition against Gonzalez, who was at the top of his game in beating Federer and then showed his well-known inconsistency by losing his last two matches.

Davydenko was hit or miss throughout the match, with 33 winners offset by 35 unforced errors. Uncharacteristically, he frequently charged the net, where he either hit a deft volley or looked like a deer caught in the headlights with bad mistakes. But Gonzalez was even more uneven, and even his stinging forehand let him down. He smacked a clean winner around the net post for one of only seven forehand winners to 17 unforced errors.