Wimbledon, England  - Five-time champion Roger Federer, British hopeful Andy Murray and two-time runner-up Andy Roddick highlighted Wednesday's quarterfinal winners at Wimbledon. The amazing Federer landed in his 21st straight Grand Slam semifinal.

"I love the record I have of reaching so many semifinals in Grand Slams in a row, 21 is quite a number," Federer said. "It shows how consistent I've been."

The second-seeded Federer got past 22nd-seeded 6-foot-10 Croat Ivo Karlovic 6-3, 7-5, 7-6 (7-3), while a third-seeded Murray mauled unseeded former world No. 1 Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 and a sixth-seeded Roddick outlasted fellow former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 6-7 (10-12), 7-6 (7-1), 4-6, 6-4 on another hot, sunny day at the All England Club.

Friday's semifinals will pit Federer against 24th-seeded German Tommy Haas and Murray versus Roddick.

In the marquee match on Wednesday, Roddick edged out the unseeded Hewitt in 3 hours, 50 minutes on Court 1.

After Roddick cruised in the first set, the next four sets were air-tight. Hewitt snuck out the second set by winning a 22-point tiebreak and forced a fifth and deciding set by breaking Roddick's mighty serve in the 10th game of fourth stanza.

It became obvious that the fifth set would be a war of attrition, as Hewitt needed 19 points to claim the first game alone via hold.

The two stars stayed on serve over the next several games before Roddick got the key break of the match to grab a 5-4 lead in the fifth, which he did with a forehand winner.

The 26-year-old Roddick then served out the match in the next game, as a gimpy Hewitt misfired long on one final forehand. Hewitt appeared to be battling a sore groin in the latter stages of the great ace-filled battle. Roddick swatted 43 aces on Day 9, while Hewitt settled for 21 in a losing effort.

"It certainly wasn't short on drama," Roddick said after escaping his matchup with Hewitt.

Roddick recorded one more break than Hewitt (4-3) and the Aussie hurt himself with nine double faults.

The former U.S. Open titlist Roddick improved to 11-12 in his career five-set matches, while the 28-year-old Hewitt dropped to a solid 29-14.

Hewitt captured the second of his two major titles here at Wimbledon in 2002.

Roddick, who lost to Federer in back-to-back Wimbledon finals in 2004 and 2005, will now appear in his fourth Wimbledon semi.

In the Federer-Karlovic affair, this Swiss broke the massive-serving Croat in each of the first two sets and cruised in the third-set tiebreak. The Swiss set himself up with four match points with a backhand passing shot and converted on his second match point with a forehand winner on Centre Court.

The 27-year-old Federer never faced a break point against Karlovic, who had not lost his serve in his first four matches at this year's fortnight.

 

Bethesda, MD - Defending champion Anthony Kim set the course record with an eight-under 62 at Congressional, taking the first-round lead Thursday at the AT&T National.

Tiger Woods, the tournament host, shot a six-under 64 to share second place with D.A. Points and Bryce Molder. Australia's Steve Elkington had a 65, while Jim Furyk led a three-way tie at 66.

Kim, who made it around the 7,200-yard course without a bogey, collected six birdies on his last nine holes to best the old scoring record of 63 set by Tom Pernice, Jr. and Peter Lonard last year.

In terms of birdies, it was the kind of success the 24-year-old Kim hasn't approached since he set the 18-hole birdie record at the Masters by making 11 of them in the second round.

"I'd like to say it was just me playing fantastic golf, but I got a couple good breaks along the way," said Kim, who also set a personal scoring record on the PGA Tour.

Kim made his eight birdies before Woods even hit the course to play his first competitive round at Congressional since 2007. That was the year Woods founded the Fourth of July Weekend tournament that benefits his foundation and pays tribute to members of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Woods missed last year's AT&T National after having season-ending left knee surgery following his U.S. Open victory.

He made about 150 feet worth of putts Thursday while shooting his best score since also posting a 64 in the second round of the 2007 Deutsche Bank Championship, which took place in September of that year.

Although Woods has routinely blamed his putting for his sometimes sporadic play this season, he seemed confident with the flat stick on Congressional's soon-to-be replaced greens.

"Today I hit a lot of putts on-line," he said. "Some went in."

Playing catch-up all day, he made four birdies and was bogey-free until hitting into a bunker at the 11th hole. Woods rebounded with a 31-foot birdie putt at the 12th -- this after he cursed his drive, which went into the right rough.

He made back-to-back birdies at the 15th and 16th, holing a 12-footer on the latter to climb within two shots of Kim's lead.

Overnight rains turned Congressional into a shooting gallery, and 36 players in a field of 119 shot under-par in the first round.

"The golf course could be had," said Woods. "You could be aggressive, you could fire at the flags and the only thing you really had to worry about is spinning the ball back too much."

Kim focused on hitting quality shots and also found the course ripe for scoring, although he took some time to explain the ways he got lucky during the first round.

Unsure of the wind at No. 3 -- his 12th hole -- Kim fired a drive that was headed 10 or 15 yards right of the fairway. The ball kicked left, saving him from a lie behind a tree, and he made a birdie.

On the next hole, Kim's drive was so far right that it missed the trees altogether, leaving him with a clear shot at the green. He made a seven-foot birdie putt there, then completed a run of three birdies in a row at No. 5.