In Halle semifinals, federer’s grass-court winning streak hits 20

Roger Federer battled past Denis Kudla in a tight two-setter on Saturday to not only reach his 12th career Gerry Weber Open final, but to extend his grass-court winning streak to 20 matches in a row.

The No. 109-ranked Kudla actually hung tough with Federer throughout the contest - after the two traded breaks in the second and third games of the match, neither player was broken for 19 service games. But the World No. 1 was just too good at the tail-end of both sets, cruising through the first set tie-break and getting a crucial break at 5-all in the second set en route to a 7-6 (1) 7-5 victory.

“Denis played a very consistent, solid match,” Federer said afterwards. “For me it was important to make the right decisions in the important moments. I played a great tie-breaker - I went up 6-0 very quickly, then was able to win the set. In the second set I had to battle, I was down 0-40 in one game and I think that was crucial. Then to break and hold was a nice feeling. It was nice to end like that.”

Federer has now won 16 of the last 17 tie-breaks he’s played at the 500-level grass court event.

“I have a good record in tie-breakers here, so I’m very confident when I go into one,” he added. “But when you get a break in their first service game you feel like you might win the set 6-3, maybe 6-2, and you start to get very positive. But if you don’t hold the next game it’s only yourself to blame.”

WATCH—Match point from Federer's win over Kudla in Halle:

This 20-match winning streak on grass has brought Federer titles at Halle and Wimbledon last year and Stuttgart last week, and now propels him into his 12th career final here. It’s his second-longest grass-court winning streak - he won 65 matches in a row on this surface between 2003 and 2008.

The Swiss is 9-2 in his first 11 finals here, capturing the title in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017 (he finished runner-up to Lleyton Hewitt in 2010 and Tommy Haas in 2012).

Standing between Federer and a 10th Halle crown will be Borna Coric, who advanced past Roberto Bautista Agut when the No. 4-seeded Spaniard had to retire due to injury up 3-2 in the first set.

Coric, who took out No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev in the first round earlier this week, is now through to the biggest final of his career - his previous three career finals all came at the 250-level (he reached the finals of Chennai and Marrakech in 2016 and then captured the title at Marrakech in 2017).

Federer has beaten Coric in both of their previous meetings, but their last one could easily have gone the other way - Federer had to rally from a set down, as well as a break down in both the second and third sets, before finally overcoming the Croat in the Indian Wells semifinals this year, 5-7 6-4 6-4.

A LANDMARK DOCUMENTARY DURING THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS EVENT IN SPORTS, CELEBRATING THE UNPARALLELED FEDERER-NADAL RIVALRY AND 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GREATEST MATCH EVER PLAYED.

In association with All England Lawn & Tennis Club, Rock Paper Scissors Entertainment and Amblin Television.  Directed by Andrew Douglas.