Roger Federer will appear in a record 20th Grand Slam championship final on Sunday, where he will attempt to break another record few believed would ever be broken.

The second-seeded Swiss, who first tasted success on the major stage at The Championships in 2003, now stands one win away from breaking the all-time record of 14 Grand Slam championship titles he currently shares with Pete Sampras.

"I'm very proud of all the records I've achieved, because I never thought I would be that successful as a kid," admitted Federer. "I would have been happy winning a couple tournaments and maybe collecting Wimbledon. It's quite staggering now to be back in the Wimbledon final already because it seems like now all of a sudden everything happened very quickly."

Haas was complimentary of Federer's game. "There aren't really any weaknesses," the German said. "I think he moves [well] and has such good defensive play. The slice bites a lot. When you think sometimes you might get a relatively easy volley, he kind of either dinks it in front of you or he made two spectacular slice lobs over my head at important points."

Under the gaze of two-time Grand Slam champion Rod Laver, the sport’s superhero for the 21st century breezed into his seventh straight final at The Championships on Friday with the 50th win of his career at the All England Club.

Five-time champion Federer extended his winning streak to 18 matches after defeating No. 22 seed Tommy Haas of Germany 7-6(3), 7-5, 6-3 in a semi-final on Centre Court, which lasted two hours and two minutes.

He will next meet sixth-seeded American Andy Roddick, in what will be a repeat of the 2004 and 2005 Wimbledon finals. "I've had many different looks against Roddick," said Federer. "I enjoy how he leaves everything out on the court. I can only marvel at how incredible his serve is. I like playing against him."

Federer’s footwork allowed him to get to seemingly impossible groundstrokes with time to spare in the first set, which was decided on a tie-break.

Haas, riding a 10-match winning streak after lifting his 12th ATP World Tour title at the Gerry Weber Open last month, stayed in contention but Federer raised his level after a Hawkeye challenge went in his favour at 2-2 in the tie-break.

The 27-year-old Swiss hit 18 winners, won 12 of 15 points at the net and committed just five unforced errors in the 46-minute opening set.

Haas, who was attempting to become the oldest singles finalist at The Championships since Jimmy Connors in 1984, held his nerve in the 10th game of the second set when he saved one set point at 30/40 with a booming first serve down the middle. 

Two games later, Federer created two set-point opportunities – firstly at 30/40, then at advantage. Haas saved the first set point with a nerveless topspin serve that arrowed into the corner, but a forehand long of the baseline on the second set point saw the World No. 34 walk to his chair at two-sets-to-love down with a wry smile on his face. The 31-year-old German knew the pair’s 12th meeting was running away from him.

Federer, who has dropped just three service games at The Championships, proved impregnable once again – winning 72 of 83 points on serve. Haas didn’t play a bad match, but in the pressure situations the brilliance of Federer shone bright.

In the eighth game of the third set, Federer was gifted two break point opportunities when Haas hit a weak second serve and a sliced backhand wide of the right tramline. Haas saved both break points with solid serves, but moments later the German hit a double fault. At the third time of asking Federer got the crucial breakthrough when Haas struck a backhand into the net after a weak second serve.

Federer closed out his ninth straight win over Haas with a love service game, finishing with a slam-dunk smash winner that Sampras made so famous during his seven triumphs at the All England Club in the 1990s. 

"Overall [I'm] pretty happy with the way I played," said Haas. "I served extremely well, [but] so did my opponent today. I only got broken at 5-6 in the second set for the first time after having a long, long game. I think maybe I was trying to go for a little bit too much then and not following up, being aggressive, coming into the net. He took the first chance. The same thing happened in the third when he broke me at 3-4."

Should Federer lift his sixth Wimbledon trophy on Sunday, he would regain the No. 1 spot in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings from Spaniard Rafael Nadal.

Last month at Roland Garros, Federer became just the sixth man in tennis history to complete the career Grand Slam.