Stockholm: Roger Federer could tie another mark by Pete Sampras after reaching the Stockholm Open final by overcoming fourth-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia 7-6 (5), 6-2 on Saturday.
Federer will play Florian Mayer of Germany in Sunday's final after he saved a match point in beating Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3).
A third title of the year for Federer will earn him the 64th of his career, matching Pete Sampras for fourth in the Open era. Only Jimmy Connors (109), Ivan Lendl (94) and John McEnroe (77) have won more singles tournaments since 1968.
On Friday, Federer won his 50th match of the year, becoming only the fifth man, and the first since Sampras, to win 50 matches in at least nine straight years in the Open era.
Like in that quarterfinal against Stanislas Wawrinka, Federer started slowly. Ljubicic broke him in the third game but Federer found his rhythm to come back and win the set on a tiebreak, prompting Ljubicic to throw his racket in frustration.
Federer ripped a glorious backhand winner that 17th-ranked Ljubicic could only watch on the way to taking a 3-2 lead in the second. He broke again in the seventh game and his 10th ace finished off his 14th win over Ljubicic in 16 contests.
"For some reason always with him (Federer), it ends up like this. I'm getting close and never really getting over it," Ljubicic said. "With him, you don't get a lot of chances and if you don't take the ones you get, this is how it finishes."
Second-ranked Federer will go into Sunday's final as the heavy favourite after beating Mayer in their two previous encounters.
The unseeded Mayer, yet to win an ATP title, will appear in his third career final, and first in four years.
Mayer and Nieminen traded breaks in the first two games of the opening set of their closely fought semifinal.
Backed by a vocal Finnish contingent at the Royal Tennis Hall, 45th-ranked Nieminen eventually took the set after breaking Mayer for a second time at 5-4.
The 47th-ranked Mayer — who beat No. 5 Robin Soderling in the quarterfinals — won the second set, breaking the left-handed Finn in the ninth game.
Mayer saved a match point in the 10th game of a thrilling final set before going on to win in a tiebreak.
"It was a tough match," Mayer said. "For sure it's a little bit luck, but he didn't take his chances in the second set and that's why I came back and I won the match."
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