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Federer pulls out of semi

Doha - Roger Federer's hopes of a fourth successive title came to an end when he withdrew from the Qatar Open with a bad back here Friday.

Having played through pain in his last two matches, the Grand Slam record-holder now prefers to give himself the best chance of appearing in good shape at the first Grand Slam tournament of the year, the Australian Open, starting at Melbourne in ten days time.

Federer was due to have met France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the number three seed, in the semi-finals.

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