Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal advance to Wimbledon final
TENNIS
The No. 1 and No. 2-ranked men's players easily win their semifinal matches at Wimbledon. They'll face each other Sunday in a rematch of the Federer-Nadal French Open final.
WIMBLEDON, England -- At a quiet moment in a third set on a heavy Wimbledon day, Marat Safin suddenly loosed a despondent primal scream that caused serious giggling in the Centre Court audience.
It came between points, just after he'd barely touched another of the museum-piece grass-court serves in the Roger Federer exhibition that has played for six years running.
It also pretty much spoke for the 12 men who had to play either Federer or Rafael Nadal during this 122nd Wimbledon.
Those 12 had so little hope that when Safin finally lost to Federer, 6-3, 7-6 (3), 6-4, today -- and then the anonymous semifinalist Rainer Schuettler lost to Nadal, 6-1, 7-6 (3), 6-4 -- it felt as if Wimbledon had just finished 11 rote days of pretty much cleaning the house and arranging the furniture for two splashy weekend occasions.
Venus Williams will meet Serena Williams on Saturday in a women's final that seemed obvious for a good week, and Federer will play Nadal in a men's final Sunday that seemed obvious since the first artery-threatening English breakfast on the first Monday morning. It also made a few bits of repetition history.
Federer and Nadal became the first guys since Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg (1988-90) to meet in three straight Wimbledon finals, and they became the first guys to combine the three straight Wimbledon finals with three straight French Open finals for a full-on Swiss-Spanish domination of Paris-London summers.
Numbers went mad all around. Federer hogged his 40th straight win at Wimbledon and his 65th straight win on grass. Nadal became the first Spanish male to reach seven Grand Slam finals. Federer became only the fifth man in the Open era to reach 16 Grand Slam finals and the first man to reach six straight Wimbledon finals since Bjorn Borg, who sat in the audience. By reaching a third straight final, Nadal joined seven other men, one being Federer. Federer's stay at No. 1 has reached 231 weeks. Nadal's camp-out at No. 2 has reached 153 weeks.
Number of sets lost by Federer this tournament: zero.
Number of sets lost by Nadal this tournament: one, that to Ernests Gulbis of Latvia, who given Nadal's ferocity ought to receive some sort of commendation, if not a lifetime supply of fish-and-chips.
"Pretty simple," Federer said of his path. "I mean, I haven't had many problems whatsoever throughout The Championships. It's been, you know, a perfect way to the finals. ... So far it's been quite unbelievable, actually."
