Melbourne: A rampaging RogerFederer crushed Andy Roddick to book his seventh consecutive Grand Slam finalyesterday (Jan 25, 2007) as Serena Williams rolled back the years to make adate with Maria Sharapova.

The defending men's champion was in a class of his own against the sixthseeded American, who could only watch bemused as the Swiss maestro rang him inrings to win 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 in just 1hr 23mins.

The lopsided contest reinforced the yawning gap between Federer and everyoneelse as he strode towards a tenth Grand Slam trophy.

"I'm shocked at it myself," said the top seed, who equalled theall-time record of consecutive major final appearances held by Australian JackCrawford since 1934.

"I played incredibly well. I don't know what I can say. It was unreal.

"Winning matches is the best and breaking records is something you onlydream of. I am playing so well you might as well take some (records) along theway," he said.

The statistics pointed overwhelmingly in his favour.

Roddick has now won only one of his 14 matches with Federer and has to goback nine matches to Montrealin 2003 for his last success.

"It was frustrating. You know, it was miserable. It sucked. It wasterrible," said the American.

"You do your best not to get discouraged. You try to take it like aman. I caught an absolute beating tonight. There's no doubt about it," hesaid.

Of Federer's 11 Grand Slam finals he has won nine, spelling dire trouble forwhoever wins the second semi-final between Germany's Tommy Haas and Chile'sFernando Gonzalez on Friday.

Williams, 25, also showed why she is a seven-time Grand Slam champion,beating Czech tenth seed Nicole Vaidisova 7-6 (7/5), 6-4.

Written off before the tournament, she proved she still has what it takes asshe bids to become the first unseeded player to win the championship since 1978when Australia'sChris O'Neil lifted the trophy.

It is her first Slam final in two years and waiting for her will beSharapova, who rode roughshod over tournament favourite Kim Clijsters 6-4, 6-2,drawing the curtain on the Belgian's Australian adventure for the last time.

Clijsters, 23, is retiring at the end of the year to settle down and start afamily.

Williams, whose performance here will rocket her back into the top 20, wasoverjoyed as her remarkable comeback from injury continues.

"I'm really excited, I've got nothing to lose, I'm having fun, backinto the top 20, that means so much to me," she said.

Williams, the 2003 and 2005 champion, had to fight hard for the win and saidshe feared choking as the Czech stormed back into the match, but hung on toclaim victory in one hour 46 minutes.

"Almost did a gag-arooney there," she said.

 "She played some incrediblepoints on match point, she just got relaxed, she reminded me a little ofmyself," she said.

"I just tried to stay focused and tried to stay calm," she said.

Sharapova was ruthless against Clijsters, showing no emotion to clinicallydispatch the Belgian and become the first Russian woman to reach the tournamentdecider in Australia.

"It's kind of sad because Kim is such a great champion on and off thecourt," she said in tribute to Clijsters, but is already looking ahead toSaturday's final.

"Serena came into the tournament with no expectations and is playinggreat tennis. She has won many more titles than me but I'm looking forward tocatching up."

Clijsters said she was going to miss everything about Australia aftershe hangs up her racquet.

"I've had a lot of fun and I'm sorry that I couldn't do better today,but I just came up against a better player," she said.