Federer to meet Nadal in Wimbledon men's final

Wimbledon: Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will meet in another Grand Slam final on Sunday.

Four-time defending champion Federer reached his ninth consecutive major final on Saturday, beating Richard Gasquet 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 on the grass courts of the All England Club.

Nadal, who lost to Federer in last year's final, set up a rematch when No. 4 Novak Djokovic retired while trailing 3-6, 6-1, 4-1.

Gasquet matched Federer for most of the first set, but the top-ranked Swiss player saved all three break points he faced, including two at 5-5. Federer saved the first with an ace and the next with a forehand winner before winning the next two points.

Including those four points, Federer won 44 of the final 54 points on his serve.

With Gasquet serving at 6-5, the Frenchman was only two points away from forcing a first-set tie-breaker, but Federer won four straight points to take the set.

"The first set was crucial," Federer said. "He should have at least got to the tie-breaker. I came out somehow and played really well for 10 minutes and was up a set and a break, and that was pretty much it after that."

In the second set, Federer held in the first game and then broke again, eventually taking a 3-0 lead.

After the set ended, the 12th-seeded Gasquet called for a trainer to look at his left ankle.

His ferocious backhands and whipping cross-court forehands again won him points, but Federer was too good, breaking Gasquet to lead 4-3 in the final set.

The win was Federer's 53rd straight on grass. He finished with 20 aces, including one on a second serve in the final game of the match.

The 25-year-old Federer, who was the oldest of the four men's semi-finalists, is trying to win a fifth consecutive Wimbledon title, something only Bjorn Borg has done in the past 100 years.

Borg, who won his titles from 1976-80, watched the match from the stands, wearing a purple-and-green tie - the colours of the All England Club.

Gasquet came back from a two-set deficit to beat Andy Roddick on Friday in the quarter-finals. Before facing Federer, the Frenchman admitted he was tired.

Federer didn't look tired. The 10-time Grand Slam champion dropped his first set of the tournament in Friday's quarter-finals, but hadn't played a full match in one day since beating Marat Safin in the third round last Friday.

Djokovic called for trainer after losing the second set. He got the little toe on his left foot bandaged, but returned to the court.

Djokovic had also retired against Nadal in the quarter-finals of the French Open last year.