Roger Federer is looking to book his place in a record 23rd consecutive Grand Slam semi-final when he faces Nikolay Davydenko on Wednesday.

It is a battle between the greatest tennis player of all time and the most in-form player on the tour coming into this tournament.

Federer is the 4/11 favourite to win the match, which is third on court at Rod Laver Arena, however the Swiss should be in for a tough contest against Davydenko, who has won the last two matches these two have played.

Federer played some of the best tennis of the tournament in the last round as he eased to a straight sets victory against Lleyton Hewitt.

Davydenko should provide a tougher test for Federer, although the Russian had a tough test himself in the fourth after being taken the distance by Fernando Verdasco, eventually winning 6-2 7-5 4-6 6-7 (5-7) 6-3.

"I'm in for a good match for sure, but I obviously favour my chances in a best-of-five-set match," said Federer after beating Hewitt. "We'll see how it goes."

He added: "Obviously he's one of the good return players we have in the game. He moves extremely well and makes it hard."

Federer has a simply stunning Grand Slam record. He showed against Hewitt why he is the best, with very few unforced errors and always looking to put pressure on his opponent and a result not allowing them to settle.

And while Davydenko has been in great form himself recently, he is yet to win a Grand Slam and that - along with the fact he has only taken one set off Federer in their previous four Grand Slam meetings - is perhaps taken into consideration with odds of 12/5 for him to defeat the Swiss on Wednesday.

That said, the Russian is still on a high after winning the World Tour Finals in London at teh end of last year. There, he recorded wins over not just Federer, but also Juan Martin Del Potro, Robin Soderling and Rafael Nadal.

Davydenko links the hard surface, but he tends to play better in cooler conditions. Last time he beat Federer, it was later in the day than Wednesday's match will be played at. Add to that the fact that this match will be played over five sets, and although it may well be a close contest, it is hard to see past a Federer win.

We'll back backing Federer to win at odds of 1/3, while on Betfair, since we expect Davydenko to at the very least make it an exciting match, we'll laying a 3-0 Federer win at 3.2 (11/5) at time of writing.

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