Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic reached the semifinals of the Swiss Indoors yesterday in Basel, Switzerland, staying on course to meet in the final.

Three-time defending champion and top-seeded Federer cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 win against qualifier Evgeny Korolev. The second-seeded Djokovic pulled out a 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2 victory over Stanislas Wawrinka.

Federer will play wild card and childhood friend Marco Chiudinelli, who beat Richard Gasquet, 6-1, 6-3, to reach the first ATP Tour semifinal of his injury-blighted career.

"It's amazing to play Marco," Federer said. "I've never played a really good friend on the tour. I'm looking forward to it."

Djokovic will meet fifth-seeded Radek Stepanek, who beat Marin Cilic, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

"It was more than a test," said Djokovic. "I was managing to hold on. (Wawrinka) was controlling the match most of the time up to the end of the second set."

AUTO RACING

KENSETH TO LEAD WAY

Matt Kenseth will start on the pole for today's NASCAR Nationwide Series O'Reilly Challenge at Fort Worth, Texas, five spots ahead of points leader Kyle Busch.

Kenseth earned his first pole in his 13 Nationwide races this season, the 16th in his career, with a qualifying lap of 187.201 mph in his Ford yesterday.

Busch, who has a 205-point lead over Carl Edwards with three races left, starts sixth. Edwards starts directly behind him in the No. 8 spot.

FIRST POLE FOR GORDON

Jeff Gordon is on the pole for tomorrow's Sprint Cup Dickies 500 at Fort Worth, Texas.

Gordon won his first pole of the season yesterday with a qualifying lap of 191.117 mph at the 1 1/2-mile, high-banked track where he got his only victory of the season in April. It was his first win in Texas.

Points leader Jimmie Johnson, who is going for his unprecedented fourth consecutive title, qualified 12th.

HORSE RACING

LIFE IS SWEET WINS

Life Is Sweet won the $2 million Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic at Arcadia, Calif., yesterday, going from last to first on the stretch run.

The 4-year-old filly is the stablemate of defending champion Zenyatta, who skipped the race to run in today's $5 million Classic against the boys.

Both horses are trained by John Shirreffs.

Ridden by Garrett Gomez, Life Is Sweet ran 1⁄ miles in 1:48.58 and paid $18.20, $8 and $5 at 8-1 odds.

AND WHAT'S MORE ...

Top-seeded Andrew Murray, seeking his sixth title of the year, and second-seeded Nikolay Davydenko won yesterday to reach the semifinals of the Valencia Open in Valencia, Spain. ... Shani Davis of the United States clocked 1 minute, 8.53 seconds to capture the 1,000-meter race at the season-opening speedskating World Cup yesterday in Berlin. ... Ashley Wagner of the United States finished first in the women's short program, edging Japan's Miki Ando and Yukari Nakano yesterday at the NHK Trophy figure skating competition at Nagano, Japan.