This Wimbledon won’t be a cake-walk for Federer

“I don’t want to think about the final,” said Nadal, who lost to Federer in the last two Wimbledon finals but stretched the five-time defending champion to five sets last year. “Not yet.”

Both players dominated their quarterfinal opponents, with neither even facing a break point in straight-set wins. Federer hasn’t been broken once through five matches at this year’s tournament.

“I feel so comfortable on this Centre Court that my confidence level is obviously very high,” Federer said after beating Mario Ancic to set up a semifinal match against two-time Grand Slam champion Marat Safin.

Federer’s comfort in Wimbledon has been obvious. Despite struggling at the start of the season with mononucleosis and coming into the third major of the year with only two titles to his name, the 12-time Grand Slam champion has stretched his grass-court winning streak to 64 matches and his Wimbledon streak to 39.

“Very confident,” added Federer, who has reached the semi-finals for the 17th consecutive time at a Grand Slam event.

“It’s something fantastic, no doubt. Because I know the streak before that was way lower,” Federer said of Ivan Lendl’s previous record of 10 straight major semi-final appearances. “Getting so far in every Grand Slam I’ve played for so many times in a row, it’s something that means a lot to me.”

Nadal isn’t exactly shaking at the prospect of facing Federer again, however. Last year, he wasted four break points in the fifth set, coming as close as anyone to beating Federer at the All England Club since 2002.

“Only one more point and probably I have the trophy in my home,” said Nadal, a four-time French Open champion who beat Federer in the last three finals at Roland Garros.

“I don’t know if this year I’m going to have more chances (to) win the title, because last year I played the final and this year I am in semi-finals only.”

On Friday’s semi-finals, Nadal will face Rainer Schuettler, who beat Arnaud Clement 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (6), 6-7 (7), 8-6 in a match that started Wednesday but was suspended because of darkness at one set apiece. They split the next two sets on Thursday, and Clement had a match point on Schuettler’s serve at 5-4, but the German hit a forehand winner before holding and eventually setting up the match against Nadal.

“Obviously a tough one,” Schuettler said of his semi-final match. “He plays unbelievable.” In the quarterfinals, Nadal had a relatively easy win over Andy Murray, and he said it might have been his best ever performance at Wimbledon.

“The second half of the first and the second set especially probably was my best match here,” said Nadal, who is again trying to become the first man since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to win the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year.

“I have to play very well if I want to win this tournament,” Nadal added. “I am playing well, but I don’t know if is enough. I hope.”

Federer has a more difficult semi-final opponent in Safin, who has put away his distaste for grass to become the first Russian man to reach the semi-finals at Wimbledon in the 40-year history of the Open era.

“He’s beaten me on big occasions in the past, so I will not underestimate him, especially not in the semi-finals of a Slam,” Federer said on Thursday. “I have to be very careful tomorrow.”

At the 2005 Australian Open, Safin beat Federer in the semi-finals on the way to winning his second Grand Slam title. “Once he’s on a roll, he’s quite unstoppable,” Federer said.

Safin, however, is 2-8 against Federer and doesn’t think he has much of a chance against someone trying to become the first man since Willie Renshaw in 1886 to win Wimbledon six years in a row.

“I’m playing semi-finals, but that doesn’t mean that I have a chance there, because the guy has won how many times already here?” Safin said of his opponent. “To beat Federer you need to be Nadal and run around like a rabbit and hit winners from all over the place. … It’s just a little bit too difficult.”