Federer takes control of game and gallery

WIMBLEDON CHAMPIONSHIPS:ONE OF the myriad of talents of Roger Federer that has been largely kept a secret is his ability to draw the emotion from opponents, from 16,000 spectators.

Playing against Marat Safin, one of the most charismatic and rhapsodic of players, Federer from the first ball strike yesterday had suppressed him and silenced the crowd.

Such is Federer's aura - yes, it is still there - and virtuosity that from the first game Safin did not believe he had any chance to win yesterday's semi-final. Federer did not permit the Russian to string together anything that would allow him growl and scream, something the Centre Court crowd dearly wanted to happen.

Federer on song is as much like a procedure as a tennis match.

Safin would have needed a degree in ballistics to determine the trajectory of the champion's serves and lighter legs to put a racquet on them. In the first set he took just four points from Federer's service games. In the second set he earned a break point in the fourth game but otherwise collected only another four points off the champion's serve.

In all Federer earned five break points over the three sets and took two of them, winning the second set on a tiebreak. He was asked if it was easy.

"Well, easy in terms of being able to control a really dangerous player who has the potential to upset anyone. So in this aspect, yes. I mean it was quite easy if you look at the score now. I was able to break him in the first game of the match and the last game of the match. I think in between I was just really consistent, didn't give him too many chances."

For the Swiss number one a sixth Wimbledon win - against Rafael Nadal - would set him apart from every other player except William Renshaw, who won six times in a row from 1881 to 1886.

But most of Renshaw's wins were quick-draw affairs; he stepped in for finals as defending champion to face an opponent who had come through the draw.

This will be the seventh match of the past fortnight for Federer and Nadal and the Spaniard will be considerably more bullish about his chances of ripping Federer's title away from him than he was in the last two meetings.

But he was not entirely in fiesta mood after nailing Rainer Schuettler 6-1, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 in two hours. "I played better in the quarter-finals," he said.

The German Schuettler was, at 32, far and away the oldest of the four semi-finalists and had taken five hours spread over two days to get there; and when the French Open champion raced to a 6-1 first set few were surprised.

Nadal was running at a 91 per cent return off his first serve and over the three sets averaged 82 per cent. Schuettler could do nothing to tame the second seed, and though he took the second set to a tiebreak, when the two exchanged service games, the match, like that of Federer, was freighted with the inevitability Nadal would win.

Using his experience and heavily spinning lefty's serve, Nadal took the tiebreak and second set in just under an hour.

"I was not on court for the first 10, 15 minutes," said Schuettler. "So of course I was a bit disappointed about the start. Otherwise . . . at least it was a close match. I had chances to win the second set, 5-4 serving. But it's okay. I mean that's why he's number two in the world. He's so difficult to beat."

Just one service break in the third game of the final set settled the issue for Nadal, who now faces Federer for the third successive year. As Federer struggles to unseat Nadal at Roland Garros, so too Nadal is destined to struggle against Federer on grass. The Australian Mark Philippoussis lost to Federer in the 2003 final; the American Andy Roddick was the victim in 2004 and 2005; Nadal was the loser in the past two years.

Given what happened in this year's Paris final, where Nadal's domination of Federer was close to humiliation, the Swiss will not assume too much. Maybe it is how multiple champions think but Federer dismissed the idea his 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 defeat in Paris had any bearing on what will take place on Centre Court on Sunday.

"His clay court season was phenomenal again. For me anyway that final is out of the picture. I hardly remember anything of it. It went so quickly. Yeah, for me it's not that big of a problem."

Nadal was less conversational about his chances. The 22-year-old is traditionally cautious and respectful to opponents. He also agreed with Federer that the Paris result would have no influence over Federer on grass.

"I think it is a totally different court, surface," said Nadal. "Everything is different. I think it doesn't matter. I don't think it will be important for Sunday."

But neither did he believe his first win on the grass at the Queen's Club prior to Wimbledon was particularly relevant.

"It doesn't matter winning at Queen's or not winning at Queen's. But I came here with confidence because I played two finals the last two years here. I think I am better in general but not on grass because on grass I don't practise too much."

Nadal yesterday practised with John McEnroe in the Aorangi courts. A three-time winner, perhaps, helping Nadal not to become a three-time loser.