Federer Beats Haas at Wimbledon to Reach 20th | Grand Slam Final

[Fedex]

July 3 (Bloomberg) -- Roger Federer beat Germany’s Tommy Haas at Wimbledon to reach a record 20th Grand Slam final and move closer to becoming the first man to win 15 major tennis titles.

Federer won 7-6 (7-3), 7-5, 6-3. He’s won 18 matches in a row, equaling his win streak from 2007. The victory means he’s reached the finals in 16 of the last 17 Grand Slam tournaments.

The Swiss, bidding for his sixth Wimbledon title, extended his own record of consecutive Grand Slam semifinal appearances. He’s trying to surpass Pete Sampras’s record of 14 major titles after tying the American last month by winning the French Open. Haas, the oldest man left in Wimbledon at 31, played well, but never got a break point against Federer.

Federer will face either third-seeded Andy Murray of Britain or Andy Roddick, the sixth seed from the U.S., in the final in two days at the All England Club in London. Federer has won two of his eight matches against Murray, and 18 of 20 matches against Roddick.

His appearance this weekend will take him to 20 major finals in his career, surpassing the record he had shared with Ivan Lendl.

Federer lost last year’s Wimbledon final to Rafael Nadal, the top-ranked player in the ATP World Tour, ending his streak of 65 consecutive wins on grass. The loss also cost him his top ranking, which the 27-year-old had held for 237 weeks in a row. A victory in the final would bring Federer back to the No. 1 spot at expense of the Spaniard, who skipped the tournament because of knee injuries.

Losing Streak

It was always going to be difficult for Haas, who hadn’t beaten the No. 2-ranked Federer since the 2002 Australian Open. He had only won two of their 11 previous meetings. Federer had only lost three times in a major semifinal going into the match and had only lost two service games in seven semifinals in London.

The German, ranked 34th by the ATP, was appearing in his first Wimbledon semifinal and attempting to get to his first Grand Slam final, after falling three times in the next-to-last round at the Australian Open. He considered quitting the sport earlier this year after three shoulder operations.

Haas and Federer started the Centre Court match by trading service games into a tie-breaker. They were being watched by former champions Bjorn Borg, Ilie Nastase and Rod Laver and broadcaster David Frost.

They continued to trade games into the second set. Federer had a break and set point at 5-4, but Haas held. It was the first break point for either player in the first hour and 20 minutes of the match. He lost another one at 6-5 when a Haas forehand in the corner forced him to hit into the net. Two points later he finally broke the German to win the set.

Federer won the first game of the third set with a 130 mile-an-hour serve to put pressure right back on Haas. The German responded, winning with a forehand down the line.

Federer won on a Sampras-like overhead smash. He won two of eight break points against Haas, including one of five in the last set.


lets hope Fed can win this one more time...