After posting how consistent Federer is, Federer apparently has a bad day where nothing is working well, and loses to Julien Benneteau.

Benneteau is one of those veteran French players who has played solid over the years, but has never won an ATP title.  Federer and Benneteau are roughly the same age.  Both knew each other going back to their junior days.  Benneteau has reached several finals, but has never won any.

Benneteau is 31 years old and turned pro in 2000, but never reached a final until 2008.  Since 2008, Benneteau has reached a final every year, and even twice in 2012.  But he’s a lousy, 0-7.  He once had the distinction of losing to his doubles partner, Michael Llodra, then played with his doubles partner to win the doubles title the same week that Querrey beat Isner, then the two teamed with each other to win the doubles.

Benneteau has challenged Federer before, most notably in last year’s Wimbledon where he pushed Federer to 5 sets in the third round, and he’s beaten Federer once, back in 2009, but otherwise Federer had a 4-1 record.

Federer hardly plays Rotterdam.  Last year was the first in some number of years, but it was critical to his run to number 1 as Federer cobbled together enough points to get back to number 1 which relied on winning a few Masters 1000 titles as well as relying on Nadal to beat Djokovic a few times.

In the other quarterfinals. Dimitrov needed 3 sets to beat Baghdatis, despite chances to close out in straight sets.  Gilles Simon beat Klizan in three sets, with Klizan retiring in the third set.  Juan Martin del Potro beat Jarkko Nieminen 63 64.  Dimitrov meets del Potro in one semi while Benneteau and Simon meet in the other in an all-French semifinal.

San Jose

In San Jose, Americans Isner and Querrey continue their winning ways.  Isner has been dealing with nerves in the Davis Cup while Querrey came off confident winning his two matches in Davis Cup.

Isner beat Malisse 63 76 in one quarterfinal.  Meanwhile, Tommy Haas beat up and coming, Steve Johnson, 64 62.  The two meet each other in the semis.

In the other quarterfinals, Milos Raonic faces resurgent Denis Istomin in one semi while Sam Querrey plays Alejandro Falla in the other quarters.

Sao Paolo

While Federer failed to reach the semi, long-time rival, Rafael Nadal beat Carlos Berlocq in three sets to reach the semi where he’ll face Martin Alund, an Argentine journeyman, who beat Italian, Filippo Volandri, in two close sets.

In the other quarterfinal, two unseeded players have reached the semis.  Simone Bolleli, of Italy, beat Albert Montanes of Spain, 64 64.  In the other quarterfinal, David Nalbandian showed he could still win with an upset of Nicolas Almagro, 76, 36, 76.  This leaves Nalbandian to face Bolleli in the other semi, most likely to play Nadal in the finals.