Federer Rolls in Prime Time

Welcome to Late Night(s) with Roger Federer.

Federer walked onto the court for his quarterfinal against Nicolas Kiefer of Germany at Indian Wells Tennis Garden before 9 p.m. on Thursday, an improvement from Wednesday’s adventure against Ivan Ljubicic, which didn’t start until 9:12 p.m.

What’s this guy going to do when he is exposed to sunlight again?

If anything, Federer, of Switzerland, has a way of adapting. Kiefer gave him an early jolt, breaking him at love in the opening game. It didn’t take long for the defending champion and top-seeded Federer to pull himself together to defeat Kiefer, 6-4, 6-1, in 66 minutes at the Pacific Life Open.

Kiefer has often been a troublesome opponent, and he proved difficult again, at times. Before Thursday, they were 3-3, with Federer winning their last two meetings.

He broke Federer’s serve twice in the first set, both times at love, a rarity.

But Federer was hardly rattled after the second break, which came in the ninth game, pulling Kiefer to 4-5. Federer then broke Kiefer at 15 to win the set, taking the last two points on a backhand drop volley and a passing shot on the run.

“When he started like this, I got a little scared almost,” Federer said. “Right away I calmed down after I broke him back.”

Thursday’s previous occupant of the Stadium Court, Maria Sharapova, stated the obvious when asked about Federer.

“It’s like he’s Mr. Perfect and nothing’s going wrong for him at this point,” she said.

Next in his path, in Saturday’s semifinals, will be Guillermo Canas of Argentina. Canas’ presence in the semifinals is a bit of a surprise: He had never been past the second round at Indian Wells before this year. Then again, you have to look at his opposition in the quarterfinals: Tim Henman of Great Britain. The 14th-seeded Canas beat No. 6 Henman, 7-6 (1), 7-5.

“I’m very happy to be in semifinals,” Canas said, adding that this is the first time he’s played well at Indian Wells. “The years before I not have very good results.”

Henman, a two-time finalist here, has one victory against Canas in six meetings, and that came in 1998. He looked unfocused, committing 51 unforced errors, and used words such as “disappointing” and “frustrating” to describe his sentiments.