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Tennis

Formidable Federer hits Safin for six

04/07/2008

Roger Federer has eased into a sixth consecutive Wimbledon men's singles final after recording a straight-sets victory over Marat Safin on Centre Court.

The Swiss master is on course to win a record-breaking sixth title at the All England Club - surpassing Bjorn Borg's 28-year-old record of five straight titles between 1976 and 1980.

And Federer looked typically serene as he blew away the Russian former world number one in under two hours, 6-3 7-6 6-4.

The tone for the match was established early on when Federer secured a break of serve in the second game of the match, holding to love in the first and third games to establish a 3-0 lead.

This quickly turned into a 1-0 lead in sets when the reigning champion pounded down three aces in the final game to clinch it 6-3.

The second set was more competitive, with both men holding serve until the tiebreak.

Again Safin was unable to make any kind of breakthrough on the Federer serve throughout the set, and this continued into the breaker as the Swiss earned a 4-0 lead early on and went on to clinch the second.

The pattern of play continued in the same vein in the third, with both men holding their own with serve.

But Federer's superior game began to shine through as the set progressed before Safin lost his cool - smashing a racquet at the changeover at 4-5 before losing his serve again to hand the match to the world number one.