Saturday, July 8 2006 14:56 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: Roger Federer hailed his Centre Court demolition of Swedish veteran Jonas Bjorkman as 'flawless' after moving to within one match of a fourth Wimbledon title in awesome style on Friday.

The Swiss needed just one hour and 17 minutes to complete a 6-2, 6-0, 6-2 victory with a near surgical, display of precision tennis.

He will now go into Sunday's final, against either second seed Rafael Nadal or Marcos Baghdatis, without having dropped a set in the tournament and on a run that has seen him clock up 47 consecutive wins on grass.

Despite being on the receiving end of the heaviest semi-final defeat since records began in 1922, Bjorkman insisted he had not played at all badly.

"Today I was playing a guy who was as near perfection as you can be and I had the best seat in the house," said the Swede.

"I asked him if was seeing the ball like a bowling ball or a basketball and he said it was almost like that. I just wanted to check he didn't have a bad day -- that would have scared me a bit," he said.

Federer confirmed his opponent's impression.

"It's a beautiful feeling and you don't have it very often. Usually you have very close matches and it depends on a couple of points, so when you dominate an opponent, it's always nice and in a Grand Slam semi-final it's even better," he said.

Federer said he did not mind whether he faced his great rival Nadal or Baghdatis, whom he beat in the Australian Open final, on Sunday.

"They have both given me a run for my money in the past, especially Nadal obviously, and it was great fun playing Baghdatis in the Australian Open final and it would be nice to play him again," he said.

Bjorkman had defied the odds with a run that made him the oldest Wimbledon semi-finalist since Jimmy Connors back in 1987.

But there was never much prospect of him interfering with Federer's majestic procession towards the final, where he will seek to become the first player since Bjorn Borg in 1976 to win the biggest prize in tennis without dropping a set.

In three previous meetings with the world number one, Bjorkman had never managed to take a set.

On this occasion, his resistance lasted exactly ten minutes.

That was how long it took for Federer to secure his first break in the third game of the afternoon.

A lovely little flick of the wrist produced a crosscourt backhand winner for a second break and a 5-2 lead and a service game to love duly wrapped up the first set in 27 minutes.

Bjorkman's body language was already suggesting defeat was inevitable at that stage and he grew steadily more dejected as the Swiss master rattled through the second set with a nonchalance that bordered on a swagger.

The Swede might have got a sniff of a chance as Federer served at 15-30 in the fourth game of the set only to have his hopes crushed by three consecutive aces.

Another break at the start of the third set allowed Federer to extend his winning run of games to 11 before Bjorkman finally managed to hold serve in the third game of the set, prompting a huge cheer from the crowd.

Respite was brief however and Bjorkman managed to pick up only one more game before Federer could start preparing for what will certainly be a tougher test in the final.