Federer advances to Wimbledon final

Jul 4, 2008 - 2:57 PM WIMBLEDON, England (Ticker) -- Roger Federer will play for another title at Wimbledon.

The Swiss superstar moved within one win of a sixth straight crown at the All England Club on Friday with a 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 triumph over Marat Safin.

In his latest brilliant performance, Federer never lost his serve as he won his 65th straight match on grass and 40th in a row at Wimbledon. The world No. 1 has yet to lose a set at this year's tournament.

Federer will face either world No. 2 Rafael Nadal or German Rainer Schuettler in Sunday's final. Nadal won the first set, 6-1.

Federer has beaten Nadal in the final in each of the last two years.

"It's great, a beautiful feeling, being able to get the opportunity to win the title again," said Federer, who is bidding to win his 13th Grand Slam championship. "It means so much to me."

Federer's winning streak at Wilmbedon is one shy of the record held by Bjorn Bjorg, whose string of five straight Wimbledon crowns was snapped in the 1981 final. Bjorg watched Friday's match from the Royal Box.

The only other player to win six straight Wimbledon titles was William Renshaw from 1881-86. However, after claiming his first championship, Renshaw was required to win only one match in the challenge round to retain the title in the following five years.

Using his normal pinpoint precision, Federer overmatched Safin in beating him for the ninth time in 11 matches to reach his 16th Grand Slam final. A former world No. 1, Safin beat Federer in a five-set thriller en route to winning the 2005 Australian Open.

Safin showed some fight in the second set to force a tiebreak. However, he missit a series of shots to fall into a 2-0 hole, which he was unable to recover from.

Federer ripped a backhand crosscourt winner to eventually end the match that lasted 1 hour, 42 minutes.

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