By Lauren Lynch
Photo Credit: Mark Howard, Armen Allahverdian

(March 31, 2011) It looks like Roger Federer will move on to the semifinals at the Sony Ericsson Open after Gilles Simon retired at 0-3 in the first set complaining of stiff neck. Federer will face Rafael Nadal or Tomas Berdych.

"Three games and he gives up..." said Federer in the on-court interview.

It is a shame that Simon felt poorly, which was evident by the way he was moving, however, the real shame is for the fans in stands who bought day session tickets for an approximate 11 minute match.
 
"No, no, it's not a whole lot fun honestly because you see the guy being booed off the court, which he clearly doesn't deserve. I understand the frustration from the people paying a lot of money to come see us play for multiple hours potentially, and then it's over within ten minutes. Only I think we played 15 points, so it's not great." Federer told the press, "We didn't play. So I guess I'm just happy to be in the semis at this point."

It has been six years since Federer has played rival Rafael Nadal in the USA and it might happen tonight depending on the results. Federer mentioned his potential opponents saying, "I think regardless if I play Rafa or Tomas it's going to be a good match for me. I lost with match points last year against Berdych here, so that would be some memories that come up again. And if I play Rafa, then obviously we have many memories from playing amazing matches against each other. It's not even that unusual that we play each other in the semis, because it's happened at the World Tour finals back in Shanghai, and then also we could have played against each other in Cincinnati in the semis but then he lost to Baghdatis."