Fed books date with destiny

Federer: Outgunned Haas

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Roger Federer has booked his spot in the Wimbledon final after a straight sets masterclass over Tommy Haas.

The five-time champion has reached his seventh straight final at the All England Club after overcoming the 24th seeded German 7-6 (7-3) 7-5 6-3 and now has the chance to land a record-breaking 15th Grand Slam.

The Swiss fired 49 winners in the two hours and two minutes contest and now awaits the winner of Friday's other semi-final between British hope Andy Murray and American Andy Roddick.

The day's first semi-final saw Federer aiming for a sixth Wimbledon crown, while Haas was bidding to become the oldest player since Arthur Ashe to win at the Championships.

Both players took their good form of previous rounds onto Centre court, Haas dominating the aces count while Federer quickly entered double figures in the winners column.

Tie-breaker

With both men cancelling each other out, the opening set inevitably went to a tie-breaker like the last time the pair met in the French Open.

Haas prevailed in that Roland Garros opener, but the 31-year-old was not to enjoy the same success this time round as Federer's excellent returning coupled with the German's unforced errors ensured the 46 minute set went the way of the five-time champion.

After clawing back a mini-break with a miss-hit forehand winner, Haas served predictably into Federer's backhand on a second-serve and the Swiss maestro gobbled it up and spat out an unreturnable backhand winner.

With the score 3-5 in Federer's favour, Haas coughed up two unforced errors and that was set one done and dusted.

The second set echoed its predecessor with neither player encountering trouble on serve - until the 10th game when Federer carved out a set-point on Haas' service game.

The German swiftly snuffed the Swiss' ideas of moving further ahead in the match by firing down some huge first serves to keep within touching distance.

Magical

Federer raced through his serve in the next game and piled the pressure on Haas earning his second set point of the set.

The former World No. 2 responded, coming up with a huge forehand to take it to deuce, but the current World No. 2 waved his wand to hit a magical running forehand winner before clinching the second set after a Haas shot went long.

Routine service holds proceeded in the third set until the eighth game where Haas was in trouble on serve.

The 31-year-old managed to handle a dubious foot-fault decision before staving off four break-points, only to falter on the fifth break point.

Clinching the break, Federer wasted no time in booking his spot in Sunday's final and sealed the match with a Sampras-like Slam Dunk smash and is now only one win away from edging past the American in the all-time Slam records.